Katie Couric delivers commencement address at UVa; Class of ’79 grad urges perseverance
Posted May 20, 2012 11:57 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Television journalist Katie Couric has urged University of Virginia graduates to take risks and persevere.
The Daily Progress reports (http://bit.ly/L9Zxnj ) that the former “Today” host and CBS News anchor addressed about 6,400 graduates on Sunday. She recounted the deaths of her husband and sister, both of whom died of cancer, and said, “Life can deal you some crushing blows, and we all need a deep reserve of resilience to survive.”
Couric, now with ABC News and developing a daytime talk show “Katie” that debuts Sept. 10, also joked about criticism she faced as the first female solo anchor of a network’s nightly news program.
She quipped, “Some said I lacked ‘gravitas,’ which I’ve since decided is Latin for ‘testicles.'”
Couric is a 1979 UVa graduate. The university’s new cancer centre is named for her sister Emily Couric, a Virginia state senator who died in 2001.
