Longtime Lexington News Anchor Dies Following A Car Crash

Lexington police say they responded to a crash around 5 p.m. involving five cars at Alumni Drive and Chinoe Road. Police say three people were transported to the hospital with minor injuries.

The Fayette Co. Coroner says Wylie was taken to UK Medical Center, where she later died.

Sue Wylie is remembered as a trailblazer in Kentucky broadcasting. She’s credited as the state’s first female news anchor.

“She wasn’t just put out there as the first. But she was really the best when she started, and she got better and better,” said Associate Professor at UK’s School of Journalism and Media, Kakie Urch.

Wylie spent thirty years in front of the camera in Lexington. She worked for the city’s NBC affiliate from 1968 to 1998. Throughout her career, she was known to ask the tough questions, especially on her political show, ‘Your Government.’

“She had Jesse Jackson on, she had Ronald Reagan on, and she would have a thing that it would be like, Did you see what Sue Wylie had?” said Urch.

Urch says through the years, Wylie was always kind to the young aspiring broadcasters.

Another trailblazer in Lexington television is WKYT’s Barbara Bailey, who was on air for more than 40 years. She considered Wylie a respected competitor who opened doors for many others.

“Even though there were women working in television, they generally weren’t on the anchor desk, or they weren’t in real prominent roles. So, Sue, really, I mean, she didn’t just kick that door open. She plowed it down,” said Bailey.

Even as they competed for viewership, Barbara always respected Wylie’s on-air work and the glamorous image she upheld in the community.

“I can tell you the first couple of times that I met her, and I was like, Oh my gosh, this is Sue Wylie. But she was always very kind to people. As a retired person now, I would run into her at Kroger. And we’d always stop and chat, but she always I may have been in there in my sweatpants and tennis shoes and glasses, but she always was so perfectly dressed, and she just commanded your attention,” said Bailey.

In addition to her time on television, Wylie was a longtime staple and host of her own show on WVLK radio where she retired from in 2013.

Wylie was inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame in 1999. In 2017, the Ohio Valley chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences inducted her into its Silver Circle which recognizes those with distinguished service in the television industry for 25 years or more.