Longtime Los Angeles Times journalist Annette Haddad has died of cancer. Here's the newsroom announcement by editor Russ Stanton:

From: Stanton, Russ
Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 10:57 AM
To: yyeditall
Subject: Annette Haddad

I regret to report the loss of good friend and colleague Annette Haddad, who passed away earlier today after a valiant battle with cancer.

Annette was given a dire prognosis a little more than a year ago, but after aggressive treatment that included major surgery, she applied her well-known force of will to return to work last fall and stayed in the newsroom she loved until the disease overtook her.

She joined The Times in 1992 from United Press International, moved to the national desk as a copy editor in 1994 and to the Business desk a year later, where she ran the wires and booked the section during the Sing Dynasty of the late 1990s and early 2000s. She went on to become an assignment editor in Business and returned to the reporting ranks in 2006 to cover the real estate boom, producing 17 A1 stories along the way, including a Column One that provided an early look at the looming foreclosure storm.

In 2007, Annette was among the handful of brave souls to volunteer to become a web deputy, first in real estate and later added duties in Business.

We don’t have details on services yet, but will share them with you when they become available.

Russ Stanton

Editor