News anchor Tanya Spencer from Indianapolis dies of cancer at the age of 53

US News

From Richard Pollina

According to WRTV, longtime Indianapolis television journalist Tanya Spencer died Friday after a years-long battle with colon cancer.

She was 53 years old.

Spencer has worked in journalism for over 20 years, including 10 years at WRTV, where she worked as a reporter and news anchor.

Before her death, the popular journalist shared a final message with her friends.

“Time. Good health. These are our only true goods. Our only true currencies that matter,” she wrote on Facebook.

Spencer, who was also known as Tanya Sumner after her marriage, was diagnosed with colon cancer during emergency surgery in November 2022, the outlet reported.

She soon learned that the cancer had spread throughout her abdomen due to a “very aggressive and fast-growing” genetic mutation.

After chemotherapy failed, Spencer began taking cancer drugs, but in September they proved ineffective.

While battling cancer, she became a health advocate and urged others to undergo colonoscopies.

She graduated from Western Kentucky University in 1996 and, according to her LinkedIn profile, initially worked as an anchor and reporter for 14 WFIE in Evansville, Indiana until 2005.

After leaving WRTV in 2015, Spencer became public relations director and city councilor for the town of Whitestown, about 30 minutes outside of Indianapolis.

She also served as Vice President for Whitestown’s 3rd District.

Emmy-winning WRTV anchor Rafael Sánchez said Spencer was “committed to excellence” in a heartwarming post honoring her hard work as a journalist and public servant.

“She was a hard worker but also a private person,” Sánchez wrote on Facebook. “Please send positive thoughts to her husband, son, father, family and friends.”

Whitestown Town Manager Katie Barr called the former anchor a “dedicated councilor” who “was rooted in our community and cared deeply about her family, friends, neighbors and colleagues,” the town’s X-account said. divided.

“Her love for this community was contagious and will be greatly missed.”

The town of Zionsville, just outside of Whitesville, also mourned Spencer as a “true public servant.”

“Tanya was a true public servant, a wife and mother, and she will be missed by all of us. Both Whitestown and Zionsville are doing better because of her efforts. On behalf of all of us, we send our deepest condolences,” the city posted on Facebook.

She leaves behind a husband and a teenage son.