Beloved Journalist Dies After 7-Month Battle With Cancer

The city of Atlanta, and the world of broadcast journalism, has lost a good one. Seven months after being diagnosed with an incurable form of brain cancer, Jovita Moore has succumbed to the disease. Moore, a multi-Emmy award-winning journalist, passed away overnight, WSB TV, an ABC affiliate station in Atlanta reports. The station has now dedicated its website, several new programs, and social media accounts in Moore’s honor.

Moore first joined the station in 1998. During her 20 year+ career at the station, she received several Emmy awards for her storytelling. Other notable career achievements include being inducted into the Siver by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Southeast Chapter. Though she was a New York native, she considered Atlanta home, and the city embraced her equally. 

In April 2021, doctors discovered two masses on the Columbia University graduate’s brain. She underwent surgery to remove the masses and was diagnosed with glioblastoma, the most common type of brain cancer. Glioblastoma is not hereditary. It also has nothing to do with one’s diet or lifestyle, unlike other cancers, such as lung cancer.  There is currently no cure for glioblastoma, but there are treatments to slow down its progression. 

Despite such a grim diagnosis, Moore stayed upbeat and positive, encouraging her family, friends, colleagues, and fans to do the same. Instead of sympathy, she asked for prayers. Moore began using her platform to advocate for brain cancer and spread information in hopes of education and further treatment.

Prior to her work in Atlanta, she worked on air with WMC-TV in Memphis, and KFSM in Fayetteville and Fort Smith, Arkansas. She moved to the main anchor desk at WSB TV in 2012. While in college, she interned with The New York Times, but her heart was set on broadcast journalism.

Moore leaves behind her mother, two children, and stepdaughter. Her role as a mother was her proudest accomplishment.

Many remember Moore as a beacon of light, regardless of her circumstances as displayed during her cancer battle. “Just a tremendous loss for our city,” Keisha Lance Bottoms, Mayor of Atlanta said in a statement. “I mean, a woman who loved our city unconditionally, who shared the news with us whether it was good or bad, but just the consummate professional. So many hearts are broken, because she meant so very much to so many of us.”

Others who have sent in their condolences include President Joe Biden, Tyler Perry, Martin Luther King III, The Atlanta Hawks and Atlanta Braves organizations, and a host of others. Moore was 52-years-old.