Sue Straughn. An angel in our midst
By Allison McCrory / Photo by Kate Treick Photography
As a student at Escambia High School in the early ’70s, Sue Knight’s counselor insisted she take typing — a class that was last on the list for the girl who had her sights on being a social worker.
With the counselor’s insistence that Knight would need to type term papers while studying social work, she reluctantly enrolled — and then she took the class by storm.
“Literally, I was beating up the typewriter. When I finished, I could type 96 words with no errors.”
After high school, Sue Knight, who would eventually become Sue Straughn, needed a job.
“There was one thing I could do and that was type. Channel 3 needed a clerk typist. That’s how I got my foot in the door,” Straughn said.
In the late ’70s, the computer craze hit Channel 3 and the station needed a data entry clerk for its new, massive, mysterious contraption. Again, Straughn’s accurate and lightning-fast keystroke entry landed her the position.
As the new kid on the block, Straughn came in early and stayed late, paying her dues with no compensation for the extra hours. Eventually, her social worker heart motivated her to create reels played as news breaks that featured her interviewing representatives of community service agencies such as the American Cancer Society. The segments, called “Dimensions,” ran for 18 years.
All the while, Straughn was embedded in the community, seeking to raise awareness and assistance for the overlooked and needy — her true north.
I Didn’t See It
Fast forward to the early ’80s and WEAR was seeking a female co-anchor. They hired a consulting firm that took a deep dive into what the public wanted in a female anchor. Their discovery? They wanted Sue Straughn. But Straughn, unable to envision herself in the anchor chair, responded with a firm “no.”
“I knew nothing about news. I didn’t see it. Yeah, no. I didn’t. I couldn’t. I wasn’t one of them,” Straughn said.
Yet eventually, after promises she could return to her former job if she tried and disliked the anchor job — and keep the extra money the job promised — she relented. Forty-plus years later, Straughn continues to relay often difficult news three times a day in her velvet voice — as well as offer a comforting sense that, despite our community’s challenges, everything will be alright.
Closer to Straughn’s heart than keeping the public abreast of news is offering assistance in any way she can, a lesson modeled in her childhood home, no matter where the military family landed.
“Our house was the house that everyone came to. We didn’t have a lot, you know. No matter how many sets of feet were under the table at our house at dinnertime, everybody ate. My mother never believed in sending children home. Because it’s like she never knew if they had food at their house … so whatever we had got divvied up,” Straughn recalled.
“It was not unusual for us to see our clothes walk out of our house on another child’s back. And maybe they weren’t the cleanest. My mom was going to make sure that they had a bath and they were going to be clean. My dad was in the Army, but he always was working two and three jobs. If he came home and there were 12 children around that house instead of the six that were his, so be it.”
Carrying forward the spirit of her childhood home, Straughn is regularly front and center at efforts targeting “the least of these,” including the annual Communities Caring at Christmas gift drive, Stuff the Bus, which encourages school supply donations, and Senior Chill Out, an initiative to provide air conditioning units and fans to the elderly during the scorch of summer. Her brainchild, “Angels in Our Midst,” highlights community members who make positive impacts and has aired for almost 28 years.
“There are stories out there that are hard stories to tell. It’s real stuff. It happens and we have to tell those stories,” Straughn explained. “But I also know that there’s a lot of good. I wanted to shine a light on that to restore some hope and to let people know there are good people out there.”
One of her most memorable impacts stemmed from a segment she created called “Nobody’s Child.” Foster children in need of homes were highlighted, including one sibling group of five, the youngest a redheaded, freckle-faced little boy. Straughn knew the odds of the children finding a permanent home together were slim.
“I put more, I think, into that story than I had put into any other story.”
Thanks to the segment, a North Escambia County family found their future children. Straughn recounted the adoption closing when the redheaded boy asked: “‘Can I stay forever now?’ Everybody in the room just boohooed.”
Many years later, a tall man in a military uniform showed up at WEAR to thank Straughn. He had red hair, freckles and a grateful heart.
“He said, ‘I just wanted you to see that I made something of myself.’”
In her work, the would-be social worker brushed shoulders with Donald Spence, a local dentist.
“He said, ‘You probably do more social work where you are and doing what you do than you could sitting in an office.’
“He changed my mindset. Again, somebody divinely placed in my life at that moment,” Straughn recalled. “He helped me to look differently at what I was doing and showed me that I had a purpose and a place.”
Embrace What
Has Your Name on It
It’s a lesson that has guided Straughn throughout her career and one she passes on to the next generation. It’s a lesson that she even reminds herself of at times.
“You know, young people, especially, will get anxious. Sometimes they’ll even get jealous. They’ll see other people getting positions or getting raises or getting things that they feel they should have. They don’t understand why somebody got a promotion and they didn’t. I will tell you this: Don’t covet what is given to someone else. Just know that what God puts your name on is meant for you. Nobody can take it, nobody can shake it, nobody can shift it. You can rest easy on it. So stop worrying about all this other stuff. Because when the thing comes along that’s meant for you, it’s going to be solid. What God puts your name on is meant for you. It’ll be OK.”
New York state native Bob Solarski has worked with Straughn for 32 years.
“She’s as close to a saint as I think I’ve ever seen,” he said. “Too good to be true.”
In addition to being an excellent, trusted newscaster, Straughn is involved in countless local nonprofits. Rather than slowing down at 70, she is seeking out new ways to help the community while giving her job 200%.
“She has never, not once, not a single day, taken a day off by choice,” said Solarski. “She has been hospitalized in the past. She’s been away on assignment or whatever the case may be, but she has never used a vacation day that I’ve seen or know of. She works tirelessly. And if she’s not here doing something, she’s somewhere else doing something. She’s always got things to do at either churches, civic events, speaking engagements, schools, whatever the case may be. She’s always helping somebody else. Always.
“She’s one of the best friends I’ve ever had, and she’s one of the best coworkers certainly that I’ve ever had as well. And it’s all balled up into one little, tiny woman who’s an incredible power.”
Humble and Kind
Straughn, approaching 53 years at WEAR, brushes off all of the praise for her long career and tireless community service with humility and humor.
“My boss will tell you that I send him emails at 2 and 3 o’clock in the morning, which I do. I send people text messages at those hours as well. I’ve never required a lot of sleep. I’m always searching news articles … What’s happening in the world? What’s going on? What am I missing? I’m the nosy one. I’m afraid that if I sleep, I’ll miss something!”
As a child, Straughn’s grandmother, Susie Henderson, emphasized the importance of kindness.
She told her, “Pretty ways make pretty girls … I was the ugly duckling. I was the runt of the litter … I’d always be the one by myself, under the tree, reading a book. I always remember being under a tree!”
Straughn listened to her grandmother, holding fast to her “pretty ways” in monumental measures. In fact, her theme word for 2026 is grace.
“I just feel a need to be kind and extend grace,” she said.
When the urge to respond or react hits, she opts to offer grace instead.
“If it lightens a load for somebody, makes the day a little bit easier, that’s the very least I can do.”
Through all of the unlikely circumstances, one thing is concrete in Straughn’s heart: through ups, downs, twists and turns, something bigger than herself is at work.
“My steps have always been divinely ordered. I know that I know that I know that I know I am where God wants and has placed me to be. I tell people all the time, I’m still standing, but God,” said Straughn, who has no plans to retire.
“I hope death catches me on the run, and I’m on the run doing something good for somebody.”
