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SANDWICH – Legendary Boston television newscaster Tom Ellis, a member of the Massachusetts Broadcasting Hall of Fame, passed away on Monday at his home in Sandwich.
He was 86 years old.
Ellis worked as a young roughneck in the Texas oil fields in the early 1950’s before becoming a news broadcaster.
He recorded one of President John F. Kennedy’s final television interviews.
Ellis was born on September 22, 1932 in the Big Thicket area of East Texas.
He was put to work at the age of 13 in the construction trades in Carthage, Texas.
While he enjoyed physical labor, Ellis loved the spotlight of theater and entertainment and found side jobs as a professional actor and carnival barker in his teens.
During the Korean War, Ellis served as a cryptographer for the U.S Navy’s Security Service in Washington, DC.
He graduated with honors from Arlington State College in 1955 and from the University of Texas in 1958.
His commanding voice soon caught the attention of a small radio station in Forth Worth, Texas where he was hired as a staff announcer for 50 cents per hour.
Ellis then moved to San Antonio where he broke into television news in as an anchor-reporter where he earned several awards for his reporting from the Associated Press and UPI.
He was among the local Texas reporters dispatched to Dallas where he landed a brief interview with President John F. Kennedy on the day before he was assassinated.
In 1968, Ellis moved to Boston after he was hired as a lead anchor for WBZ-TV where he covered major stories including student protests against the war in Vietnam and the Chappaquiddick tragedy involving Senator Edward M. Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne.
Ellis was lured away from Boston to New York City in 1975 to anchor the prime time news on WABC-TV where he earned New York Newscaster of the Year honors as well as the top ratings in the market.
Also during that time, Ellis made a return to acting and landed a role in the big screen thriller Marathon Man with Dustin Hoffman and Sir Lawrence Olivier.
He played of all things – an anchor man. Other movie roles would follow.
Ellis returned to Boston three years later to join the anchor team at Channel 5 that included Chet Curtis and Natalie Jacobson.
During his tenure there, Ellis hosted a Peabody Award winning documentary called Fed up. He then moved to WNEV-TV (now WHDH) where he co-anchored newscasts from 1982 to 1987.
Ellis is the only journalist to have anchored top-rated newscasts at each of Boston’s network affiliates in the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s.
In the early 1990’s, Tom Ellis became one of the first television anchors for NECN (New England Cable News) where he continued to cover major world events close to home such as 9/11 and the plane crash that took the lives of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife and sister-in-law.
Ellis anchored his last newscast in 2008.
Long time friend George K. Regan, Jr. remembered Ellis this way.
“Tom Ellis was not just a great journalist, he was a great human being. I got to know Tom while working as the press secretary for Mayor Kevin White. My respect for him as a newsman grew from day one and we later became the closest of friends,” Regan said.
“Tom Ellis was family to me and there wasn’t a holiday or special event that we didn’t spend time together or simply reach out to talk. My thoughts are with Tom’s lovely wife Arlene. I will miss my dear friend,” Regan said.
Ellis was also deeply involved with various charities including the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the Boy Scouts of America, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, and Big Brothers and Big Sisters.
He had also served as Chairman of the United Way of Cape Cod.
He predeceased by his mother Mary Eunice Ellis, father Herbert Caswell Ellis and sister Mary Grimes Ellis.
Tom Ellis is survived by his wife Arlene(Rubin) Ellis of East Sandwich, Massachusetts, Arlene’s sister Debbie Berger and her husband Michael of Newton, Ma., daughter Terri Susan Ellis of Freedom, CA., daughter Kathy Denise Cornett and husband Randy Cornett of Hamilton, OH, and son Thomas Christopher Ellis and wife Beverly Ellis of Cincinnati, Ohio. Ellis also leaves behind five grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
Services are pending.
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