ATLANTA — Channel 2 Anchor Jovita Moore was remembered this weekend in a memorial service held by her WSB-TV family.
Moore died on Oct. 28 after a 7-month battle with an aggressive form of brain cancer.
On Saturday, Moore’s immediate family her WSB-TV colleagues gathered at Ebenezer Baptist Church to remember a woman who was the heartbeat of Channel 2 Action News.
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There were lot of tears and lots of laughs as a who’s who of Channel 2 anchors and colleagues remembered their friend.
Her self-proclaimed “work spouse,” co-anchor Justin Farmer, spoke about their strong partnership and the fun that he and Moore had off-camera.
“Unquestionably, the thing I miss the most is being the little brother she never had, and spending every day trying to get her to bust out laughing at least once,” Justin Farmer said. “If only you could see what went down during commercial breaks.”
Legendary Channel 2 Anchor Monica Pearson, who welcomed Moore as she took over her anchor slot at her retirement, said that Jovita always had a positive attitude and a smile for everyone she met.
“In all the years that I worked with Jovita, I never heard her raise her voice except when she laughed,” Pearson said. “And what a laugh.”
Fred Blankenship told the story behind the hilarious social media video of the moment Jovita finally agreed to dance with him.
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“Jovita is a planner,” Blankenship said. “She goes, ‘Where do I stand? What’s going to happen?’ I said, ‘Don’t worry about it! I’m going to put it on, you’re going to like the song, and it’s going to happen.”
During her battle with cancer, the notoriously private Moore hunkered down with just a small circle of family and friends. Her best friend, Tymeka McNeal Juniors, was by her side every step of the way.
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“We cried, we danced, we sang through the hurt. Because she refused to allow this disease to kill her spirit or the spirits of the ones she loved,” Juniors said.
Juniors holds special place in the hearts of the WSB-TV as Moore’s longtime make-up artist, confidant and sister. Juniors spent countless hours at the WSB-TV studios and became part of the station’s extended family.
For many members of the WSB-TV staff, this was the first glimpse of the grace Moore displayed during her battle.
“She was so strong, y’all,” Juniors said. “She told me on the day of her diagnosis that this may be a strong fight or a weak fight, but she wasn’t going down without a bleeping fight.”
Juniors said Moore wanted people to remember her as she always was, radiant and brave, and that she didn’t suffer.
“Please take comfort knowing that she held her head high the entire time and fought a good fight with grace and dignity until the very end,” Juniors said.
After tributes by her colleagues, Moore was eulogized by Georgia’s first Black senator, the Rev. Raphael Warnock.
Warnock remembered Moore as a storyteller who the city of Atlanta trusted to tell the hard stories of our times.
“Great is the responsibility of one who gets to come into our living rooms and come into our homes day after day, week after week and year after year and tell us the story of us,” Warnock said. “We trusted a Black girl from the Bronx, and we trusted her here in Atlanta, the cradle of the Civil Rights movement, because we trusted her to get the story right.”
Warnock said Moore was one of the first to congratulate him on his historic win, via text message at 2:28 a.m. on Jan. 6.
“And then she got right down to business. She said, ‘When can I talk to you?’” Warnock said. “She was a journalist, she was a professional storyteller, but she was excited and she understood what this moment meant. That on Jan. 6, Georgia had elected it’s first Black senator, it’s first Jewish senator. When you think about the story of America, she wanted to tell that story.”
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