Sharon Lawson, a “Good Day Atlanta” anchor since 2017, has to leave Fox 5 (WAGA-TV) on Wednesday, she announced on her public Facebook page Friday.
“After deep prayer and consideration,” she wrote, “I’ve decided to explore new vistas beyond this, my adopted community. It’s been such a privilege to anchor the news each day with an incredible morning team and professional staff behind and in front of the cameras. I’ll miss you all dearly!”
Lawson added, “It’s been said, ‘To be human is to be in service to mankind,’ and I hope I served you well during my time on ‘Good Day’.”
Her departure follows that of veteran medical correspondent Beth Galvin, 58, and investigative reporter Randy Travis, 62, on Tuesday, who also took buyouts as Fox 5 aims to cut its budget in a challenging ad environment for broadcast TV.
Fellow Fox 5 anchor Courtney Bryant, in Lawson’s Facebook comment section, wrote “You are a shining light! We will miss your talent, poise, sense of humor, and fashion sense. Wherever you go, I know you will continue to sparkle. I’ll miss you!”
Before Fox 5, Sharon, 54, worked for 14 years as an anchor/reporter at an NBC affiliate in Miami. She has also worked at stations in Salisbury, Maryland; Dayton, Ohio; and Minneapolis. According to her Fox 5 bio (since deleted), she has interviewed the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Muhammad Ali.
She was born to Jamaican parents in Toronto before moving to Florida in the mid-1980s. Her bio noted that “Lawson’s path to broadcast journalism started at age 5 when her mother ― and biggest supporter ― spied her practicing intros and outros with a hairbrush and a mirror.”
