If the timing all lined up, it would be fair to think Dolly Parton wrote her song “Light of a Clear Blue Morning” about Hannah Rucker waking up the city each day with her positivity, her care for those who need the most support and her love of Austin on KVUE News.
Coming up on her seventh year at the station, Rucker has been one of the leading forces behind the segment Forever Families, where she features foster kids, sharing their individual stories with viewers. A stat from October 2025 showed 30% of the filmings have resulted in adoptions. She recently crossed 200 segments of the series.
What do you put your identity in?
A sense of community has always been extremely important to me, even since I was little. Feeling like I am watering this garden patch that I have in front of me. I've always felt a very big sense of purpose looking out for my fellow man and my neighbors and getting to know them on a deeper level. I care deeply for advocating for children and for people who I think are deemed the most vulnerable in our society. I've always felt a sense of wanting to protect them. And whether that's animals, children, elderly, I just genuinely feel like I was called to do what I can to try to stand up for people who can't speak for themselves, which is why I do think journalism has been such a passion for me.
Favorite part of your day-to-day?
I wake up before the rest of the world, and I think there's some intimacy to that, and it's a really special thing. There's something really cool about waking up and being like, hey, you know, I am essentially kind of this rooster here. I'm gonna let people know, ‘Here's what to look out for from overnight. Here's what you need to know about.’
Can you tell me about Forever Families?
In Texas, we have one of the highest numbers of children in foster care, thousands and thousands of children that are involved. It is a very complex topic. It was my management at my station that came to me and they knew I love children, I have a good energy with people, and they asked if I was interested in doing this. I immediately said yes. What I quickly learned, though, is there are so many layers when it comes to foster care, which is why I try to present these stories with a level of delicacy and really do right by everyone involved. The goal is to help give these children visibility.
What I've learned is these children want their stories to be told. Every story I go to, I always ask them and make sure they are happy to be there, they want to be there. It is incredible just the way that they are able to articulate their hardships, their dreams, the way that they want the community to see them.
It is truly my life's honor to do this, and I hope I get to do it for many more years. It's hard to even put into words what it means to me because I spend so many hours sifting through their sound and writing the stories, and I just always want to make sure I am properly highlighting these children in the best way I can.
You can visit kvue.com/foreverfamilies and follow Hannah on Instagram: @HannahRuckertv