BY: Jasmin Ball
Photo by: Jenny Risher
There is a beautiful quote I once read from Ralph Waldo Emerson that stated, “To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”
Etched in the minds of many conspiring to be great lies the burning desire to leave behind something when we die… a legacy… to make a difference and be, do, or create something that will leave a lasting impression with at least one person changed for the better as a result of crossing paths.
When many think of legacy, the buck stops at generational wealth (money or property), rather than broadening the view to also consider the stories, how we’ve made others feel, and the footprint we leave behind in route to making a difference in our home, community, and the world.
If there’s anyone we can learn from about leaving a legacy within our home, community, and the world, it’s Detroit’s legendary and former WXYZ-TV news anchor Diana Lewis. Before retiring in 2012, Lewis accomplished a trailblazing career in news that spanned across 44 years and earned her many honors including multiple Emmy Awards, the Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award, inducted into the Michigan Broadcasting Hall of Fame, and honored at the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall in Washington D.C. She also made history anchoring with her daughter, Glenda at WXYZ-TV in Detroit.
Building a legacy is a lifelong journey and accumulation of impressions we’ve made in others through our daily lives. Ultimately, it’s about the person we’re becoming, our character, faith, and it’s impact.
Below is what we learned from Lewis and her legacy of strength, courage, generosity, and care for her community, family, and making the world a better place. Use these everyday ways to help live a more meaningful life and establish a legacy of pricelessness and longevity.
Follow Your Heart & Help Someone
Love is the most powerful feeling. If our goal is to make a difference, we have to follow our heart and help someone. Lewis has had a lifelong love and care for people. Her choice to help others can be seen early on in her youth when she regularly volunteered in nursing homes, through her initial choice to pursue social work in the early days of her career, through her years working in journalism and television, and even now serving as a caregiving role in retirement.
Put Yourself Out There
You never know where your journey may take you, which is why we shouldn’t be afraid to put ourselves out there. In the case of Lewis, a visit with a friend to NYC in 1962, turned into an inspired conversation with Barbara Walters who was then working at NBC. “At the time, I was on a path to graduate with a degree in social work, but during our visit, Barbara suggested I give some thought to becoming a journalist.”
In 1968, a few years into Lewis’ teaching career at Scott Intermediate High School, Lewis got the opportunity to get her foot in the door of journalism. She joined Philadelphia’s WPVI-TV as a parttime assistant producer for Black Book, a program about issues in the Black community, after learning about the job posting from her stepfather, who encouraged her to apply.
That same year, Lewis made her first on-camera debut on Black Book after guest host Maya Angelou fell ill shortly before the taping. The producer Jim Blocker asked Lewis to step in for the taping to replace her, recognizing Lewis as “a public speaker, in touch with the people, and having good charisma.”
Let Your Light Shine
Taking chances on yourself is one thing, but believing in yourself and choosing to evolve into a newer version of you is another. If we want to leave a legacy of impact, we can’t remain unseen, blend into darkness, or dim down our light to fit in. Instead we have to let our light shine.
There are a few moments in Lewis’ life where she recalls “something went click”, where she chose to recognize when opportunity was knocking, have faith in God, and become the person she wished to see.
During her first taping, “I claimed my voice, so help me, to be a voice for the people.” The je ne sais quoi she exuded during her time at Black Book helped to catapult her career in news. She was promoted to newscaster, and when she later moved to Los Angeles in 1974, her work in news attracted the attention of Sylvester Stallone who asked her to appear in his next film, Rocky as a tough, sensitive TV reporter.
Over the years, she has also gone on to appear in the television shows All My Children, Murder She Wrote, The Twilight Zone and the movies The Monster Squad (1987) and The Squeeze (1987). Not to mention, joining one of Detroit’s most successful news teams alongside star primetime anchor Bill Bonds at WXYZ and going on to make history and form the country’s first mother/daughter news anchor duo at the same station –a feat Maya Angelou embraced and called “the Lewis dynasty.”
Be Selfless
The size of life Lewis has been able to live along with the amount of lives she has been able to impact and touch is hard to quantify and summarize in just one article. Lewis’s legacy extends beyond the personality we’ve seen on screen. In her home life and community, especially now in retirement, Lewis practices selflessness, kindness and generosity daily.
Lewis took on caregiving for her mother for a number of years until her passing at 103 in 2022. She also cared for her recently deceased marine sergeant husband who had also retired from WXYZ as the station’s first Black editor. Together, they reared two daughters (Glenda and Donna) and loved on two grandchildren.
“The things you do for yourself are gone when you are gone, but the things you do for others remain as your legacy.” – Kalu Ndukwe Kalu
Ultimately, leaving a legacy isn’t always about what we leave for people, but more so what we leave in people. If we want to build a great legacy, it’s important to find a balance in practicing selflessness while still carving out the time to lean into being supported and taking care of you.
Jasmine Ball is a wife, mom, award-winning journalist, and founder of BTM Writing Services, a writing firm helping companies all over the world get confidence over their content and grow their businesses. With God at the center, Jasmine’s life mission is to use her gift to connect people to resources that will help them live more informed, inspired, and overall better lives.
