Posted by chicagomedia.org on January 30, 2008 at 10:26:19:
BY ROBERT FEDER Sun-Times Columnist
Allison Payne, the veteran news anchor at WGN-Channel 9, is battling back from a series of ministrokes that has kept her off the air for more than three weeks.
Officials of the Tribune Co.-owned station have refused to comment on Payne's absence from the 9 p.m. newscast she has anchored since 1990. Substitute anchors have been filling in for her alongside Steve Sanders.
Payne, 43, disclosed Tuesday that when she sought treatment for numbness in her right arm, doctors discovered that she had suffered two ministrokes within the last year.
Ministrokes are temporary blockages of blood to the brain.
"I haven't really felt like myself for the last year," she said, citing frequent headaches and fatigue.
Two of Payne's colleagues, Dina Bair and Robert Jordan, had commented to her about her speech and on-air performance before her diagnosis earlier this month, she recalled.
Although she still is unable to use her right arm, Payne said she expects to return to work next week in time for coverage of the primary election and the start of the February ratings sweeps.
"There are a lot of things that I've taken for granted about my health," she said. "I feel blessed to have had a wake-up call."
Payne, a native of Richmond, Va., grew up in Detroit, and founded a scholarship fund at the University of Detroit Mercy in memory of her mother, who died of a blood clot.