Ann Compton to be inducted into Illinois broadcasters' Hall of Fame

Award winning broadcast journalist Ann Compton, the first woman reporter ever assigned to cover the White House on a full-time basis by a network television news organization, will be inducted into the Illinois Broadcasters Association's Hall of Fame, Monday, December 15.

An Illinois native and 1965 graduate of New Trier High School in Winnetka, Compton's first full-time reporting job was at WDBJ-TV in Roanoke, Va. Soon after, ABC News hired Compton to work from New York, followed by the White House assignment in 1974.

Reporting for all ABC News broadcasts, Compton has traveled around the globe and through all 50 states with presidents, vice presidents and first ladies. Twice during campaigns, she was invited to serve as a panelist for presidential debates (1988 and 1992), and she was assigned as a floor reporter at the 1976 Republican and Democratic National Conventions.

September 11, 2001 would find Compton as the only reporter allowed to remain on Air Force One during those dramatic hours when President Bush was unable to return to Washington. Compton was part of the team that was awarded the prestigious Silver Baton Alfred I. DuPont Columbia University Award for the network's coverage of September 11. Her coverage was also recognized in ABC News' Emmy and Peabody Awards.

No stranger to Hall of Fame inductions, Compton was inducted in 2000 by the Society of Professional Journalists into the Journalism Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Museum of Broadcasting's Radio Hall of Fame in 2005.

Compton joins a prestigious list of past IBA Hall of Fame broadcast journalist inductees, including Dave Garroway, Paul Harvey, Frank Reynolds, Mike Wallace, Harry Smith, Paula Zahn, Bill Kurtis, Orion Samuelson, Chris Bury, and Charles Gibson.