Retired WCBI News Director Robert Davidson has died

TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) – Retired WCBI News Director Robert Davidson passed away Sunday morning in Tupelo.

He ran the newsroom at WCBI from 2012 through 2021.

Most of his professional career was spent in news, from photographer to producer to manager.

He also worked in television in Jackson, Tennessee, and for years as News Director at WTVA in Tupelo.

Robert played baseball at the University of Mississippi and spent many nights and weekends working with ESPN and the SEC Network to broadcast Ole Miss sports.

In 2021, he was diagnosed with a lung disease that would lead him down a new path, from quadruple bypass to lung transplant, all while remaining completely engaged with his newsroom and staff, often from the UAB Hospital Critical Care Unit.

If you judge an individual’s achievements by what he has done for and meant to others, look no further than the dozens of journalists, sports reporters, and meteorologists in television newsrooms around the nation.

And he remained, until the end, as a mentor to a generation of reporters.

He served as a North Star of how to be the best in journalism.

It was for that reason that he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Mississippi Association of Broadcasting on April 1 in a room filled with his peers.

Robert Davidson is survived by his wife Julia and his sons Parker and Lake, his sister Jackie Lindsey and his brother C. L. Davidson.

He is survived also by an extended news family that extends over miles and years.

He leaves a legacy of hard work, determination, conviction, and heart.

Join us on WCBI News for a look at the life of Robert Davidson.

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Categories: Featured, Local News