NY1 reporter/anchor Ruschell Boone died from complications due to pancreatic cancer Sept. 3 at age 48.
Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
Emmy award-winning reporter and NY1 anchor Ruschell Boone died Sunday due to complications related to pancreatic cancer, according to the new station where she worked for more than 21 years, mostly covering Queens. She was 48.
From covering the devastation from Superstorm Sandy more than two decades ago, to the powderkeg that followed as the city converted the Pan Am Hotel in Elmhurst into a shelter for homeless families in 2014 to being the only TV reporter in the room when she told a young Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that she had defeated Congressman Joe Crowley in one of the most stunning political upsets in Queens history, Boone was there to bring the news to the borough.
“Ruschell Boone was a skillful and dedicated reporter who knew Queens inside and out and who had a unique ability to connect with everyone she met,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said. “I am proud to have known her for so long and to have counted her as a friend. Her loss is tremendously saddening.”.
Boone was born in Kingston, Jamaica, before immigrating to the Bronx with her family when she was 11 years old, according to NY1, which she joined in 2002. It was just after she marked her 20th year at the station that she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
She spent the next nine months going through chemotherapy treatment keeping her fans updated along the way on social media. Boone was declared cancer-free and made a triumphant return to the anchor desk last March.
The following month, Boone served as the emcee at the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network’s largest annual fundraiser, the PanCAN PurpleStride walk, raising national awareness and much-needed funds for pancreatic cancer research.
Boone shared with the crowd filled with fellow cancer survivors that she had stomach pain that wouldn’t go away and felt something was wrong with…
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