Melanie Lawson announced today during the 5pm newscast that she will retire at the end of January 31, 2026, after serving more than four decades as an ABC13 KTRK Houston anchor.
During a station meeting earlier in the day, KTRK president and general manager Mike Carr told employees that January will be full of celebrations for Lawson.
In that meeting, Lawson shared her journalistic wisdom with colleagues.
"Telling the truth is always the best way to go and maintaining your integrity," Lawson said. "Our viewers expect nothing less than that, and ultimately, we're just their eyes and ears. We're not really there for ourselves."
And as someone who regularly worked long hours past her shift, she reminded them to enjoy their personal lives, too.
"Give yourself and your family a break," she added. "What we do is not so important that you don't want to spend time with your kids or your spouse or your dog, whatever it may be. Take it from me, you don't want to look up one day and feel like you've missed everything. I know what I'm saying, I spent way too many late nights here logging and writing and missing out on great parties or quiet conversations, pizza, and Netflix with the people you love."
“For nearly 25 years, Melanie and I worked side-by-side," former ABC13 Live at Five anchor Art Rascon told mikemcguff.com. "She is the most generous, genuine, understanding, and compassionate person I have ever met. It was an absolute joy to work with her and learn from her. I wish her the best in her retirement! She deserves it!”
A proud lifelong Houstonian, she first walked through the station’s doors as an intern and became a reporter on September 13, 1982. Journalism was a second career chapter for Lawson, who, after earning a degree in politics from Princeton University and a joint Law and Journalism degree from Columbia University, practiced law in New York at a Wall Street firm for three years.
When Lawson told me she was retiring, she was surprised by my shocked reaction. While everyone deserves the chance to step back from their jobs and relax, as a big fan of Lawson's, it's still unbelievable to me that she is not on Channel 13 anymore.
Lawson is the same warm presence in real life that you see on television. Not every anchor could have that said about them.
As a former KTRK intern myself, someone asked me to make a pot of coffee. Not a coffee drinker, I did not know how (and I am still not a coffee drinker, so probably don't ask me for help today either). In my first interaction with Melanie, she helped me out on the spot and showed me what to do. As a 17-year-old kid, I was shocked that this big-time anchor was so kind to me in that moment.
Her kindness to the many KTRK staffers who have walked through those legendary hallways, and to me, would only continue.
Always a friendly presence in the newsroom, Lawson would be one of those employees who brings the team together. At her desk, usually sipping sparkling water, Lawson is the desk that staffers found themselves drawn to. Those discussions could be fun and friendly, all the way to a mentorship and advice moment that the younger journalist would remember for the rest of their career.
And I will always cherish the times when I would walk through the newsroom and hear her voice yelling Crime Dog at me! As I've written before, when my father died, and I had only worked at KTRK for a short time, Lawson was one of the people who reached out to make sure I was OK.
"I have had the honor and privilege to work with some of Houston's best journalists over my long career," former KTRK news producer Joe Williams told mikemcguff.com. "Melanie is at the top of that list. She is not just a superb journalist, but one of the most approachable and down-to-earth people I have ever met. She is family to me and Houston television news will not be the same without her."
“Wow, what an incredible career! Melanie is a lifelong friend and I wish her the absolute best," Rascon added. "She is one of the hardest working women in television, and it was an absolute joy to spend nearly 25 years sitting side-by-side with her as we anchored the News. Godspeed, Melanie! You are loved and appreciated by all of Houston!”
As an Emmy award-winning journalist who has interviewed everyone from four U.S. Presidents to Beyoncé, I feel Lawson is a documentarian trapped inside an anchor's body. Not content to sit inside a studio all day, Lawson has always pursued reporting on important local issues others might overlook in underserved communities.
What I always admired about Lawson is that she fought to report on the sometimes under-covered Houston arts scene. Not only that, but in her personal life, she supports those institutions such as the Houston Ballet, SHAPE Community Center, Asia Society, The Rothko Chapel, and the Ensemble Theatre. She has been honored by the Community and the Center for Contemporary Craft.
Where does her love for the overall Houston community come from?
Lawson is from here and comes from a family that also cared. Raised in Houston's Third Ward by the Reverend William D. Lawson and her mother, Audrey, her parents founded Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church. Reverend Lawson, who died in 2024, led the battle to desegregate the city and was a close friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"For such a long time, I felt as though our stories weren't being told," Lawson told Bishop James Dixon in 2021. "They weren't being properly told in a lot of cases. That it's easy to do a drive by in a neighborhood or, you know, talk to somebody today about, you know, a shooting or a fire or whatever. But there's some neighborhoods where the roots are deep, the stories are strong, and yet they're not being told. So I felt as though my mission was to represent people who grew up in the city, people who love this city, but whose voices were not always heard."
Here are some of my exclusive photos from the big announcement.
