Sadness descended on Denver’s CBS Channel 4 newsroom this week when colleagues learned of former longtime reporter Suzanne McCarroll’s death.

The 35-year KCNC veteran died Wednesday after a long illness.

“It just kind of shook me up because we had just texted Sept. 19^th,” News Director Kristine Strain said.

Strain remembered when she was just starting out in the news business, it was McCarroll who assured her that a woman can work as a journalist and also raise children.

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“She showed me it could be done,” Strain said. “It was through her example that it encouraged me to have a family.”

Later, when Strain got married, it was McCarroll’s children who babysat for the guests at her wedding.

According to the station’s Facebook page, McCarroll came to CBS News Colorado, then KCNC-TV, in 1982 where she worked until 2017. Previously, she held roles first at IBM, then KIDK in Idaho Falls in 1979, and KCGR in Cedar Rapids in 1980. She also taught reporting and journalism at the renowned Poynter Institute. 

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News anchor Jim Benemann remembered when he first met McCarroll in the early 1990’s when he started work at KCNC. He said people trusted her because of  her kind and professional manner.

“Those of us who knew Suzanne were not surprised by the fact that she always got the interview,” he said.

When times got hard in the 90’s, McCarroll was known for a segment called “Beating the Recession,” to help people rise above tough economic times. In another, titled “Pay it Forward,”  she would give money away while on the air to people who were doing interesting things.

She left CBS News Colorado in 2017 for California to be with her family. She leaves behind three grown children and several grandchildren.  

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