Historically, Today has garnered more viewers than its chief competitor, ABC’s Good Morning America. Today’s ratings plunged when Pauley left, however, and for 34 weeks, while Norville served as Today coanchor with Bryant Gumbel, ABC attracted a larger audience at 7 A .M . than NBC. Soon after Couric began her hosting duties, Gumbel left for vacation. That week, Today overtook Good Morning America as the nation’s most-watched morning show. Since then, Couric has helmed Today through a cohost change (when Gumbel departed the show), guest anchored the Nightly News, and provided coverage for NBC’s sports, newsmagazines, and parades.

Katherine Anne Couric was born January 7, 1957, in Arlington, Virginia, to Elinor and John Couric, a journalist. She majored in American studies at the University of Virginia, graduating with honors. Twenty-two-year-old Couric impressed veteran television journalist Sam Donaldson, who appointed her as a desk assistant at ABC network news. A year later, she joined Cable News Network (CNN) in a behind-the-scenes capacity. CNN transferred Couric between venues and eventually gave her on-air exposure. She worked at WTVJ in Miami from 1984 to 1986 as a general assignment reporter.

Couric changed employers again in 1987, moving to Washington, D.C.’s NBC affiliate, WRC-TV. While there, Couric won both a local Emmy and an Associated Press award for a feature about a dating service for the handicapped. In 1989 NBC promoted her to the post of deputy Pentagon correspondent. She joined Today as its first national news correspondent in 1990 and in January 1991, became interim host of Today. Three months later she accepted the permanent anchor position.

Viewers found Couric to be a compelling personality. The Washington Journalism Review named her Best in the Business in 1993, and Glamour magazine recognized her as a Woman of the Year. In 2001 the Harris Poll asked a national sample of men and women, “Who is your favorite TV personality?” Couric ranked ninth. In feature articles, she is frequently categorized in terms of her energy and attitude. Salon Magazine called her “a chipper everywoman,” the Boston Globe said Couric was “both impish and assertive,” and a satirist described her as “the queen of perky.”

NBC capitalized on Couric’s popularity by extending her exposure within prime-time news programming. Her assignments included stints as coanchor for Dateline NBC, the network’s coverage of the XIX Winter Olympic Games from Salt Lake City, and the defunct shows Now, with Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric and cable channel MSNBC’s interview program Internight. Couric has been nominated for 12 national Emmys and has won the award five times for hosting Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parades.

Couric has interviewed many of the nation’s leading newsmakers. More notable interviewees included Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor; Colin Powell in 1993 just after his stint with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and again as secretary of defense on September 12, 2001; Reverend Billy Graham; Bill Gates; and Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos. Couric conducted Hillary Clinton’s initial TV interview as First Lady and John Kennedy Jr.’s final interview prior to his death in July 2000. Often, however, her subjects are common people faced with extraordinary challenges.

Couric has guest-starred as herself on the television programs Murphy Brown and Will & Grace; she played a prison guard in the 2002 movie Austin Powers in Goldmember. Couric also has publishing credits. She coauthored the children’s book The Brand New Kid, about how school children interact with classmates from other ethnic groups. Couric penned an introduction for Life Magazine’ s photograph collection Life with Mother, and she also wrote the foreword for Childhood Revealed: Art Expressing Pain, Discovery, and Hope, a collection of drawings from adolescents with emotional, mental, or physical problems.

Couric’s personal life has been a success story laden with profound family tragedies. In 1988 she met Washington, D.C., attorney John Paul “Jay” Monahan III, and they married in 1989. The couple had two children, Elinor born in 1990 and Caroline born in 1996. Monahan was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 1997 and died nine months later in January 1998. Couric’s eldest sister, Virginia state senator Emily Couric, died of pancreatic cancer in October 2001.

When Couric’s husband began his health struggle, she became a champion for colon cancer awareness, testing, and research. With the Entertainment Industry Foundation and philanthropist Lilly Tartikoff, Couric founded the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance (NCCRA). In 2001 she won a George Foster Peabody Award for televising her own colonoscopy examination. In 2002 Couric spoke with cancer survivor and activist Molly McMaster on Today. The show premiered public service announcements about the disease prepared at Couric’s request by top New York, Boston, and Austin advertising agencies and to be used throughout the United States.

Besides her advocacy on Today, Couric has used her connections to influence government policy. In 1998 Hillary Rodham Clinton hosted a White House event focusing on colorectal cancer awareness and screenings. Prior to her death, Couric’s sister Emily sponsored a new Virginia law that requires insurance companies to pay for colon cancer screenings. In 2000 Couric testified before Congress about how the disease has affected her life.

It is likely that Katie Couric will be remembered in years to come as an energetic and intelligent woman, someone who used her strength to ask newsmakers tough questions and her compassion to champion children’s literacy, intercultural understanding, and cancer education.