{"id":41063,"date":"2015-05-09T18:31:39","date_gmt":"2015-05-09T18:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=41063"},"modified":"2015-05-09T20:50:45","modified_gmt":"2015-05-09T20:50:45","slug":"dianne-white-clatto-weathercaster-who-broke-a-color-barrier-dies-at-76","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=41063","title":{"rendered":"Dianne White Clatto, Weathercaster Who Broke a Color Barrier, Dies at 76"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dianne White Clatto, Weathercaster Who Broke a Color Barrier, Dies at 76<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a>
\n2015-05-07<\/p>\n

Sam Roberts<\/strong><\/a>, Urban Affairs Correspondent (@samrob12<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
\nDianne White Clatto, in 1967, giving the weather report on KSD-TV. Credit St. Louis Post-Dispatch<\/em><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Twelve years before Al Roker<\/a> started as a weather anchor for a CBS affiliate<\/a> in Syracuse<\/a>, Dianne White Clatto made broadcasting history in St. Louis<\/a>. In 1962, according to industry colleagues, she became the first full-time black television weathercaster<\/a> in the country.<\/p>\n

Ms. Clatto, who died at 76 on Monday at a retirement center in St. Louis, broke into television by way of radio. She was a manager for Avon<\/a>, the cosmetics company, and hosted a live radio show when Russ David<\/a>, a bandleader with whom she sang in an impromptu performance on the air, referred her to an executive of KSD-TV<\/a> in St. Louis. She was hired as a $75-a-week \u201cweathergirl\u201d in 1962.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat am I supposed to do?\u201d she recalled asking her new bosses, in an interview with the Weather Channel<\/a>. \u201cThey said to me, \u2018This is called television.\u2019 They said to me, \u2018When those two red lights come on, start talking.\u2019 And I said, \u2018About what?\u2019 And they said, \u2018Preferably something about the weather.\u2019 \u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dianne Elizabeth Johnson was born in St. Louis on Dec. 28, 1938, the daughter of Milton and Nettie Johnson and a descendant of a Civil War<\/a> general\u2019s slave mistress. She was among the first black students to enroll at the University of Missouri at Columbia…<\/p>\n

Read the entire obituary here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dianne White Clatto, Weathercaster Who Broke a Color Barrier, Dies at 76 The New York Times 2015-05-07 Sam Roberts, Urban Affairs Correspondent (@samrob12) Dianne White Clatto, in 1967, giving the weather report on KSD-TV. Credit St. Louis Post-Dispatch Twelve years before Al Roker started as a weather anchor for a CBS affiliate in Syracuse, Dianne […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1245,8413,8,20,25],"tags":[20047,20049,20046,20048,18549,18548,773,2640,2702,778,2327],"class_list":["post-41063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-biography","category-communications","category-media-archive","category-usa","category-women","tag-dianne-elizabeth-johnson","tag-dianne-white","tag-dianne-white-clatto","tag-ksd-tv","tag-ksdk","tag-ksdk-tv-5","tag-missouri","tag-new-york-times","tag-sam-roberts","tag-st-louis","tag-the-new-york-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}