Jess Marlow, longtime LA news anchor was 84*

Jess Marlow had a long career reporting or anchoring on KNBC, KCBS and KCET — 37 years in all, ending with the old "Life & Times” program on KCET. Marlow retired to Santa Fe in 2003 and died Sunday in a Denver-area nursing home. His nephew, Bill Marlow, told the LA Times the cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease.

Marlow was hired at KNBC Channel 4 in 1966 and stayed there until moving to Channel 2 from 1980-86. He then returned to Channel 4, and finished with KCET from 2001-2003.

Tom Brokaw, his former colleague at KNBC, said in a statement that "Jess Marlow was a first-rate journalist and a beloved figure in the newsroom. He was an important part of the team that inaugurated the two-hour local news on KNBC and served as anchor of every broadcast at one time or another. He also had a wicked sense of humor. After one of Evel Knievel's many crashes, Jess said, 'Evel rides fast and thinks slow.'"

CBS LA has a story up too.

* Update: Val Zavala, who worked with and I believe co-anchored with Marlow at KCET 2001-2003, tells me: "Jess Marlow was a rare breed. A true newsman with a big heart, a sharp mind and a small ego. You don't find that in newsrooms often these days. I was so very lucky to have worked with him."