Lana Jones, Veteran WBZ NewsRadio 1030 Reporter, Dies

BOSTON (CBS) – Lana Jones, a long-time reporter for WBZ NewsRadio 1030 in Boston, passed away Wednesday. She was 62 years old.

"Lana died suddenly this morning at UMass Medical Center in Worcester," the station said in a statement.

"Lana was the consummate professional who could take a hundred page Supreme Court Decision and boil it down into a concise report for our listeners," said Bill Flaherty, WBZ's Program Director. "She knew everyone and everything. She will be greatly missed."

Jones joined WBZ in 1991 as a news writer, editor and fill-in anchor and reporter. She has been part of the station's award-winning coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings, the Whitey Bulger trial, the Aaron Hernandez case, the Priest sex abuse scandal, the crash of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane and the Worcester warehouse fire.

One of her final assignments was covering the wake for her long-time colleague, former WBZ sports director and New England Patriots announcer Gil Santos, Tuesday.

Jones began her broadcast career in Toledo, Ohio while studying special education at Bowling Green State University.

A native of Warren, Ohio, Jones moved to Worcester in 1981 to join the staff of WAAF. There she anchored the news and hosted a weekly talk show on local teen issues. From 1983 to 1988, Jones was a news anchor and reporter for WMJX in Boston. She worked as a reporter for the former WHDH radio from 1989 to 1991.

Lana leaves behind her husband Steve.

Her colleague Carl Stevens wrote and recorded a beautiful poem in her honor Wednesday.  You can hear it here.

"We were in tears this morning. This came out of nowhere, and it's hard to express what we have lost," Stevens told WBZ-TV. "Lana had a tremendous professional approach to her job but also a human, personal approach to her job. She never forgot the fact that when she was talking to people, she's not talking to a number, she's not talking to a story, she's talking to a person. What we lost in losing Lana Jones was a good reporter and a fantastic person."