WYMT-TV news director, anchor and station manager Tony Turner died Sunday of
injuries sustained in an automobile collision last month. Turner who was 40, is
survived by a wife and two children.
Police said Turner's sport-utility vehicle was struck on the driver's side
when a driver traveling in the opposite direction lost control of her vehicle
and crossed into his lane. The woman and her daughter were killed.
Hospitalized immediately after the June 10 crash, Turner's condition had
occasionally shown signs of improvement, and was once upgraded from critical to
serious condition.
Turner began his career in radio in the 1970s, and moved to television in the
mid-1980s after having been general manager of WFSR-AM Harlan, Ky. He began at
WYMT-TV as a news reporter in 1986, but was named news director and anchor
shortly after.
A fan of political reporting, for years he anchored a local show, Issues
and Answers... The Mountain Edition which, the station said, featured guests
ranging from local mayors to former presidents.
Assistant news director Carole Butcher has been running the station's news
department.
General Manager Ernestine Cornett said she had not yet begun to plan for
Turner's replacement.
The station has established a scholarship fund in Turner's name for aspiring
Kentucky broadcasters.
