Mary Jo West has been a presence in my life for 50 years. When she hit the airwaves at KOOL-TV Channel 10 in 1976, she shattered a major glass ceiling as Arizona’s first female prime-time anchor; a massive shift for a conservative market that had long been an all-male stronghold. I was only 8 years old when she came into my living room in Northwest Phoenix and redefined the horizon for little girls everywhere. She wasn’t just a face on the news, she was news and quickly became a local landmark. Around the Valley, she was the person kids dressed up as on Halloween and the voice everyone tried to mimic at the dinner table, including me.
Fast forward to 1989... I became her college intern. It felt like a total glitch in the matrix. There I was an ASU journalism student, standing in front of THE Mary Jo West, then presiding over station operations at Phoenix 11, the city’s government-access cable channel. At that stage of her career she was behind the camera, just as I was trying to get in front of it. By the mid-90’s, I was walking the same halls she did at KSAZ-TV (Channel 10) as an anchor in my own right, at the very place she once forced open the doors for women like me to walk through.
Those were some unwelcoming rooms. Her co-anchor, the venerable Bill Close, was twice her age and number one in his time slot. He was “encouraged” to bring on a female co-anchor following an FCC ruling to hire more women and minorities.
“In my first interview he asked me some private information” Mary Jo recalls. “Bill was of a different generation.”
The arc of their relationship went from vulgar-and-vocal critic to valued mentor, culminating in Bill asking Mary Jo to speak at his funeral many years later. It would be the first of many times Mary Jo ultimately won the room in her career, but the personal toll was heavy. Both her mental health and two marriages suffered under the weight.
“During my time getting somewhat to the top, I didn’t have balance. I didn’t have a pair of shoes that weren’t high heels. I was too obsessed with my career. I didn’t want to let women down," she reflects.
In 1980, that exhaustive pursuit of breaking news, broke her. While covering the Democratic and Republican National Conventions on location (an honor and first for the Phoenix station), Mary Jo worked at a feverish pace to meet the demands and deadlines, not sleeping for 5 straight days. When she returned home, she was manic.
“It was the worst time of my life. I plummeted into the other side of mania; clinical depression.”
The station quietly sent her to a psychiatrist, but the drugs weren’t effective like they are today. She went to Camelback Hospital for a series of three shock therapy treatments. Two weeks later she was back on the air. “And it was never discussed by anybody,” she recounts.
In signature Mary Jo fashion and determination to make a difference, she did eventually go public with her battle with clinical depression, accepting invitations to The Oprah Winfrey Show and to speak at the White House Mental Health Conference - advocacy that continues today with Mary Jo insisting: “It’s not a weakness, it’s an illness.”
Dismantling social stigmas is the common thread running throughout her entire body of work. From exposing a lack of wheelchair access for veterans and documenting the first adaptive rafting trip down the Colorado River to interviewing inmates at then Florence State Prison to examine the dark psychology of rape, Mary Jo has consistently pushed taboo topics into the light. At one point, she even enrolled in the police academy for two weeks to ensure her story accurately portrayed the training.
“I’m still sore,” Mary Jo jokes.
Having watched Mary Jo work both from afar and up close, I can say unequivocally: she is a portrait of resilience and a master of reinvention. She’s had to be. From the start, she fought for her identity - beginning with her name, a tribute to her parents Mary Anne and Joe - while navigating the “cosmetic burden” and scrutiny of being a woman on television. Despite all her success, she says she never quite grew a skin thick enough. As she beautifully puts it: “I still have a heart that’s easy to break, but a backbone of steel.”
And it’s been tested time and again.
After six years at Channel 10, she was tapped to anchor the overnight news for CBS Network in New York. And aside from befriending Diane Sawyer in an otherwise unfriendly environment, the schedule wreaked havoc on her body. After a year, she returned to Phoenix at the invitation of Channel 3 to be the first female managing editor of the newsroom. Three years of disappointing ratings forced her out.
“I threw myself a three-month pity party,” she confesses, but the setback proved to be a turning point.
Now a free agent, she was commissioned by a local church to interview Mother Teresa for a documentary; a meeting that led her and her then husband, Dick Mahoney to adopt a baby from an orphanage in Honduras. Today, Mary Jo calls her daughter the greatest blessing of her life, followed closely by her three grandchildren.
At almost 78, Mary Jo is nowhere near finished writing her own story or “letting the O word in,” as she says.
“I mean thinking of yourself as old. You still matter. You still can make a difference. Don’t give up.”
You’ll still find Mary Jo informing the public today, trading in the old anchor desk for the information desk at Sky Harbor Airport. She says she’s often taken aback people still recognize her; a testament to her legacy that includes a Peabody, a pair of Emmys and countless accolades. She was also the first woman inducted into the Arizona Broadcaster’s Hall of Fame.
As for being called “Arizona’s First Lady of TV News,” Mary Jo says “I’m humbled and honored. They can’t take that away from me.”
No they can’t.
Nor can her impact on women and girls be denied as illustrated by Mary Jo’s favorite piece of viewer feedback. The reaction of a little girl watching her on tv: “Look Mom, girls can be newcasters, too!”
“That just means the world to me,” says Mary Jo.
Me too. I was one of those little girls.
Want more from Mary Jo? Listen to her podcast interview on the “Breaking Bade" podcast, streaming everywhere.
Kathleen Bade
A 14-time Emmy® Award-winning anchor and reporter, Kathleen Bade spent three decades as a trusted voice in the Phoenix, San Diego, and Los Angeles. Now retired from the daily news desk, she stays active as a host, moderator, coach, and podcaster.
IG @kathleenbade