YOUR NEIGHBOR: Jorie Lueloff

Neighborhood: Sandy Hook, Siesta Key
NEIGHBOR FOR: Has been visiting Siesta Key for more than 30 years and living here
permanently for two years

When Jorie Lueloff joined WMAQ-TV in 1966, as Chicago’s first female news anchor, she didn’t receive a warm welcome from everyone in the community.

Former Chicago Mayor Richard J. Dailey would giggle when she asked him questions during press conferences.

“No one wanted women to do anything more than type, and it was discouraging,” Lueloff says.

In 1964, the Milwaukee native had landed her first news job writing for the Associated Press in New York.

She remained with the Associated Press for little more than a year, then went to work for NBC in Chicago. Lueloff describes her job there as a “noble experiment” to determine whether the public would accept a woman reporting hard news.

“Young women these days don’t know how far we have come in such a short time,” Lueloff says. “It is important to know how medieval it was.”

Lueloff went on to win a Chicago Emmy for her investigative reporting series on a thyroid treatment that caused cancer in patients.

She also had her own column in the Chicago Sun-Times and testified in Congress about credit card rights for women.

Lueloff began visiting Siesta Key in 1978, when her parents purchased a home in Sandy Hook.

She and her husband, Richard Friedman, decided to make Siesta Key their primary residence two years ago. Lueloff is on the program committee for Sarasota Institute of Lifetime Learning.

“I like Siesta Key because I remember when it was all artists and architects and very low-key.”

“I love the West Coast of Florida because it has a lot of Midwesterners with values that I (have). They are solid people.”