Veteran broadcaster Soni Dimond from Pennsylvania has been mourned by her local news station after she died suddenly at the age of 67.
The self-described ‘Queenager’ went into cardiac arrest on December 27, and died on Thursday at Lancaster General Hospital, having never recovered.
Dimond was a part-time presenter on local news station ABC 27 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where she hosted the Vibrant Living lifestyle segment.
Colleagues at the TV station presented tributes to her on-air after news of her death, paying tribute to her 45 years in media.
‘Soni will long be remembered for the energy and glamor she brought every time she stepped into the ABC27 studio,’ the station said.
Amy Kehm, who hosted Good Day PA, the show that included Dimond’s segment, teared up as she spoke of her admiration for her fellow presenter.
‘This was her idea to host a segment called ‘Vibrant Living’ because that’s how she was living – vibrantly,’ she said.
‘I’m a better person for meeting Soni and there’s a reason she had the last name that she did because we all want to shine bright like a Soni Dimond.’
Former colleague, now WBAL anchor, Robert Lang added:’Soni Dimond was an absolute treasure, a wonderful PR professional and classy lady. Loved working alongside her in Harrisburg.’
Dimond attended Cedar Cliff High School and Gettysburg College and began her career as an intern in 1978, when the station was known as WTPA-TV 27.
She was hired as the station’s first weekend news anchor a year later, and was also its first female anchor.
During the week she filed reports for for WGAL-TV8 and presented a segment called Consumer Corner.
Dimond left journalism later in the 1980s and worked for AFSCME in Washington, DC and the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
She then started her PR firm Soni Dimond Media in 1995, for which she was named among the Best 50 Women in Business in Pennsylvania Award in 2003.
When she returned to broadcasting and ABC 27 in 2018, she pitched Vibrant Living as a segment about about seniors and how they were enjoying life – just as she was.
Dimond was survived by her niece Elena Lomicky, son-in-law Joe, grandson Emerson, and her husband of 28 years, Kevin Martorana.
Her funeral is on January 17 at Wiedeman Funeral Home & Cremation Services, on Harrisburg Street in Oberlin, Pennsylvania.