Retired CBS 2 anchor, political reporter Derrick Blakley, late photojournalist Morris Jones honored with Silver Circle awards
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Silver Circle is one of the most esteemed groups in our industry, honoring people who have devoted 25 years or more to the TV business, and a member of this year's class is our friend and retired CBS 2 colleague Derrick Blakley.
CBS 2's Jim Williams also was inducted into the Silver Circle in 2018, and it was his great pleasure to introduce Derrick at the silver circle ceremony Friday night. Derrick's outstanding career took him from Chicago's South Side to the world's capitals and to CBS 2.
Chicago's Chatham community in the 1960s; Wilbert and Mai Blakley, both factory workers, set the stage for their future newsman.
"My parents always had a newspaper in the house. We always got the [Chicago] Tribune, we always watched Channel 2, and we always watched CBS News, and I ended up working for all three institutions," Derrick said.
Derrick's talent was clear at the start: on the student newspaper at Hales Franciscan High School, at the Medill journalism school at Northwestern University, and at grad school at the University of Illinois. As an intern at the Chicago Tribune, he scored this front page story.
"After the paper was up, I went down to the loading dock, and saw them loading the papers on the trucks, and thought, 'Every one of those papers has my story on the front page.' I just floated home. My best day in journalism," he said.
At 30 years old, he was a foreign correspondent for CBS News. Throughout Europe and the Middle East, he racked up the frequent flyer miles, and impressed viewers with his eloquence and sophistication.
"It was an incredible experience," he said. "You were constantly learning and absorbing."
"Every time you got on a plane, you were immersed in a new culture," he added.
In the 1980s, he brought that wealth of experience home to Chicago, anchoring and reporting for NBC 5.
CBS 2 lured him to our storied old building on McClurg Court in 2003, where he joined Mary Ann Childers on the anchor desk.
"When Derrick Blakley was there, you knew the adult was in the room," Childers said. "He had perspective, he had insight, he was thoughtful. And maybe more important than all, he knew what was important to Chicagoans. He got Chicago."
That deep knowledge of the city and its history infused his coverage of politics.
He was a tough reporter, but in the field and in our newsroom, Derrick was always gracious, making time for interns and new employees.
"His insistence that I come with him, and that I watch how he does it, and that I learn is really what propelled me into my career. Some of the things that I learned watching him 10 years ago are things that I apply today," said Nick McGill, a former CBS 2 intern now anchoring at CBS 4 Indy.
Starting with a pain his hip 12 years ago, Derrick was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer. He battled: chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant, a rod inserted in his leg.
"It gives you a different perspective, it makes you grateful for every day, and it makes you understand that every day is an opportunity not to be wasted," Derrick said.
On the job, or in the hospital, Derrick was unflappable.
"That calmness is real, and I'm convinced that that is a big part of why he so far has been able to at least hold this disease to a draw; and why he continues to live a healthy and happy life, and is an inspiration to so many of his friends," said retired CBS 2 producer Ed Marshall.
Courage, tenacity, wisdom, and kindness; hallmarks of an extraordinary life.
"I cannot imagine another way to earn a living, to make a career, in a way that was any more intriguing, or exciting, or fulfilling," Derrick said.
We also want to acknowledge our late colleague Morris Jones. He too was inducted into the Silver Circle Friday night. Morris was a talented and creative photojournalist, and we miss him. Our warmest wishes to his family.
Jones first joined CBS 2 in 1976. He traveled the world – covering such events as the presidential swearing-in of Nelson Mandela in South Africa along with CBS 2 reporter John Davis in 1994.
Jones received the Silver Circle Award for his four-decade career at CBS 2 before he passed away from cancer in 2016.
Also honored was the great CBS News correspondent Martha Teichner, who worked here in Chicago in the 1970s. She now does a lot of her work for CBS Sunday Morning, and the anchor of that show, Jane Pauley, presented Martha Friday night.
