Gretchen Elizabeth Carlson (born June 21, 1966) is an American television personality who currently co-hosts the Fox News morning show Fox & Friends along with Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade. An accomplished violinist and winner of the 1989 Miss America Pageant while representing her native Minnesota, Carlson graduated from Stanford University before embarking on a career as a television journalist. Gaining experience as anchor and reporter for several local network affiliates before joining CBS News as correspondent in 2000, she later became co-host of the Saturday Early Show. In 2005 Carlson moved to Fox News and became the regular co-host of Fox & Friends a year later. Carlson continues to work with the Miss America pageant and serves as a national celebrity spokesperson for March of Dimes.
Carlson was raised in Anoka, Minnesota and graduated from Anoka-Hennepin School District 11's Anoka High School, where she was the 1984 class valedictorian.[2] One of her childhood nannies was Michele Bachmann, the future Republican congresswoman.[3] Growing up, Carlson was an accomplished violinist winning numerous local and national competitions. She performed as a soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra as an 8th grader and was the Concertmistress for the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphony. She spent five summers studying at the prestigious Aspen Music Festival in Aspen, Colorado. Winner of several Concerto Competitions at the MacPhail School of Music in Minneapolis, she was also featured as a soloist with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.[4]
In 1984, she was elected as one of the Anoka Homecoming attendants and was named Miss Teen Minnesota and was first runner-up in the 1984 Miss Teen USA National competition.[4] Carlson won the title of Miss Minnesota in 1989 [5] and became the third woman from Minnesota to win the Miss America title. For the talent competition, Carlson played Zigeunerweisen, the violin composition of Sarasate.
Carlson graduated cum laude from Stanford University in 1990, with a degree in sociology (organizational behavior). While at Stanford University, she studied abroad at Oxford University.[6]
On October 4, 1997, Carlson married sports agent Casey Close.[7][8] They have two children.[9] In September, 2011, Carlson was named to the inaugural class of the Anoka High School Hall of Fame.[4][10]
Carlson was previously the co-anchor of the Saturday Early Show, on CBS, along with Russ Mitchell. She joined CBS News as a correspondent in 2000, and began working on The Early Show in 2002. Before her tenure at CBS, Carlson served as a weekend anchor and reporter for KXAS-TV in Dallas, Texas, was an anchor and reporter at WOIO-TV in Cleveland, Ohio, and for WCPO-TV, in Cincinnati. She began her television career in Richmond, Virginia, as a political reporter for WRIC-TV.[9] She began her media career in a franchise called Neighborhood News.
Carlson was moved to Fox & Friends initially as a weekend substitute host. But on September 25, 2006, a shifting of anchors, which included E.D. Hill moving to the 10 a.m. hour of Fox News Live opened a weekday slot on Fox & Friends, which Carlson filled. She co-hosts the show with Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade.
She announced on Fox & Friends on June 9, 2009 (also repeated on Glenn Beck's Fox News television program the same day) that her parents' car dealership had been selected for closing as part of the General Motors reorganization and bankruptcy on June 1, 2009.[11][12] The dealership, Lee Carlson's Main Motors, has been operating since 1919, and is still open.[13]
On Fox & Friends, during a January 10, 2007 interview with Dan Bartlett, Counselor to then-President George W. Bush, Carlson labeled Democratic U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy a "hostile enemy" of the United States, "right here on the home front." Bartlett replied "Well, we don't view Ted Kennedy as a hostile enemy. We do view him to be an open and often critic of the war. He has been from the very outset. I don't think that's anything new."[14] Keith Olbermann chose her as that day's "Worst Person in the World" on that night's broadcast of his show Countdown,[15] while Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post called it "the Fox News exchange of the day", and asked, "Doesn't the Constitution allow for dissent?"[16]
- ^ Carter, Bill (December 4, 2009). "For ‘Today’ and ‘Fox and Friends,’ Different Approaches on Disclosure". Media Decoder (New York City, New York: The New York Times Company). http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/04/for-today-and-fox-and-friends-two-different-approaches-to-disclosure/. Retrieved 9 December 2009.
- ^ "Gretchen Carlson". Pageant Center. 2007-06-12. http://pageantcenter.com/pageant%20titleholders/gretchencarlson.html. Retrieved 2010-09-29.
- ^ GOP's New Lightning Rod - George Will
- ^ a b c Anoka-Hennepin School District
- ^ Miss America :: History - 1989, January 11, 2007
- ^ Fox News. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,164751,00.html.
- ^ Going Deep: Casey Close, Alan Schwarz, baseballamerica.com, February 9, 2007
- ^ "Minnesota Marriage Collection, 1958-2001". Ancestry.com. http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=8721&enc=1. Retrieved November 31, 2010.
- ^ a b "Gretchen Carlson". Fox News. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,164751,00.html. Retrieved 2009.12.10..
- ^ Levy, Paul. "Anoka's Hall of Fame missing two big names: Keillor and Bachmann". Star Tribune. http://www.startribune.com/local/129276683.html. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ^ Levy, Paul (June 16, 2009). "GM terminates contract with Anoka's Main Motors". StarTribune.com. Minneapolis, Minnesota: The Star Tribune Company. http://www.startribune.com/local/north/47970131.html?elr=KArks:DCiUMcyaL_nDaycUiacyKUnciaec8O7EyUr. Retrieved 9 December 2009.
- ^ Froemming, Mandy Moran (June 4, 2009). "Anoka’s Main Motors being cut by GM". Anoka County Union. Coon Rapids, Minnesota: ABCNewspapers.com. http://www.abcnewspapers.com/index.php?id=7661&task=view&option=com_content&Itemid=26. Retrieved 9 December 2009.
- ^ "Lee Carlson's Main Motors". Main Motors website. http://www.mainmotor.com. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
- ^ Fox & Friends, January 10, 2007
- ^ Countdown, January 10, 2007
- ^ Kurtz, Howard (January 11, 2007). "One Last Surge". The Washington Post (Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company): pp. 4 & 5. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/01/11/BL2007011100388_4.html. Retrieved October 7, 2010. "The president's speech surprised me last night."
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Carlson, Gretchen |
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June 21, 1966 |
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Anoka, Minnesota, U.S. |
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