mikemcguff.com: Carolyn Jackson, former KTBC Austin host, dies

Carolyn Jackson, 96, an Austin TV pioneer, passed away in Georgetown, TX, on January 16, 2024.

Jackson, who hosted the "The Carolyn Jackson Show" on KTBC (now called FOX 7 Austin), initially took over the show in 1968 when it was called "Women's World." She was hired by the Texas broadcast legend Cactus Pryor. "Women's World" was first hosted by Jean Boone, who has been called Austin's first female television personality.

Once Jackson took the helm of the show, she pushed for her co-worker, Mary Strickland, to work as the floor manager in the studio in the male-dominated broadcasting industry.

"So we got our first woman as floor manager in Austin, and that was a big step." Jackson told FOX 7 Austin anchor Casey Claiborne in 2020. "And little by little, the women began to come in the door and show what they could do. And it's been okay ever since. And I'm just happy to think that if I had a part of that."

Besides pushing boundaries, "The Carolyn Jackson Show" has become an archive of Central Texas history and Hollywood celebrity interviews of the time.

Slackerwood, an Austin film blog, described Jackson and the half-hour show airing weekdays as:

"Jackson was a true pioneer for women in the male-dominated world of television at the time. With no staff and a miniscule budget, she ran the show largely as one-person operation, serving as the show's producer, doing all her own research, writing and editing her news reports and landing interviews with everyone from Woody Allen to Texas First Lady Rita Clements."

The Texas Moving Image Archive (TAMI), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to preserving Texas history through video, now houses the Carolyn Jackson Collection. A quick glance shows interviews with Hollywood luminaries such as Warren Beatty, Richard Pryor, Gene Wilder, Sid Ceaser and Alan Arkin to Jay Leno and Fran Drescher. Those A-List celebrity interviews came from Jackson's trips to press junkets around the country.

TAMI writes that Jackson moved the show in the late 1970s to KTVV 36 (now known as KXAN). Slackerwood says the show ended around 1979 as syndicated programming began pushing out local shows.

According to Claiborne's interview, Jackson then worked for the Texas Film Commission in an off-camera role. She also worked for 590 KLBJ-AM at one point and appeared in many television commercials.

In 2018, the Taylor High School grad was inducted into the Taylor Duck Hall of Fame.

"Carolyn is a 1944 graduate of Taylor High School," Taylor ISD spokesperson Tim Crow told KTBC at the time. "She was a cheerleader in high school. She went on to the University of Texas [at Austin] and got one of the first broadcasting degrees they offered.

"We just want to show people how people from Taylor have made an impact in the world. Also, we want to show young people how they can be from a small town and maybe not have much financial means but make the most of life."