Family announces 2022 death of Ann Fraser, co-host of 'People Are Talking' on KPIX
SAN FRANCISCO -- CBS News Bay Area has learned that longtime Bay Area broadcaster Ann Fraser, who co-hosted the popular "People Are Talking" interview and variety show on KPIX with Ross McGowan, died last year in Oregon at age 83.
Her daughter, Jennifer, confirmed the news, saying her mother died peacefully in Milwaukie, Ore. in late December 2022. She said the family wanted to wait before making the news public.
At KPIX from 1978 to 1992, Fraser and her co-host McGowan welcomed a cavalcade of national and local celebrities and entertainers to the KPIX studios where People Are Talking was taped in front of a live audience.
Notable guests included Tom Hanks, Robin Williams, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Carol Burnett, Rosemary Clooney, Jim Carrey, Pres. Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter, Spike Lee, Yoko Ono and Harry Belafonte.
Fraser and McGowan also took their show on location. They were the first to broadcast live from the AIDS ward at San Francisco General Hospital.
Memorably, they doffed their clothes to host a broadcast from a nudist colony in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Co-workers at KPIX described Ann as "effervescent," "funny," "hardworking" and "entertaining"
Fraser was remembered by others as a "consummate professional" and exceptionally kind.
Ann was born in Evanston, Illinois and, according to her daughter, was struck by the performing bug as a child when she entered a talent show on a cruise to Hawaii with her family.
She enjoyed an impressive theater career on Broadway and had roles in "Sail Away," "Oklahoma" and "Brigadoon." In 1963, Fraser performed with the "Brigadoon" cast in front of the king and queen of Morocco and President John F. Kennedy at a White House state dinner.
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At about 4 minutes and 24 seconds into a video posted to the John F Kennedy Presidential Library that shows the performance of Brigadoon, Ann appears wearing a pale teal dress with a tartan sash.