VALDOSTA, Ga. — It was the 1983 explosion that reportedly killed 241 U.S. service personnel, and journalist Barbara Redwine recalled the fear she felt as she broadcasted on the Beirut barracks bombing. 

It was the first live breaking newscast for the Valdosta native, who adopted the name Gwen Sommers while working in media.

Redwine was one of the original anchors for CNN, and it was by chance that she led the network in breaking the Beirut story due to a no-show anchor, she said.

“I kept waiting for the door to open with the guy flying and rushing into that newsroom, the veteran newsman; the guy never came,” she said. “I’m like, OMG, so I said OK, I gotta get it together, now.”

She said it wasn’t until later she received recognition for the broadcast when it was published for PBS Frontline in February.

Footage from the broadcast will soon be donated to Valdosta State University, along with more clips of her time at CNN and pieces of work from the last 40 years.

She said she will be the only alumnus to have a collection housed at VSU, and she is the third journalist to submit a collection to the university.

Redwine graduated from Valdosta State College, now known as VSU, in 1981 with a bachelor’s of fine arts with a theatre arts, radio, television and film concentration.

“VSC is my alma mater, and it is where I received inspiration and the skills that I needed to become a journalist of note,” she said.

Her thirst for journalism started at the age of 12, when she enjoyed watching news anchors Chet Huntley and David Brinkley.

“I think I learned from emulating them maybe a certain level of poise or communicative skills,” she said. “I was a kid, but I still found them fascinating.”

It was at the age of 14 that Redwine initiated her path into journalism as she began working for Southwest Georgia Enterprise in Valdosta.

She later wrote for The Valdosta Daily Times under Publisher Tenney Griffin and Editor Wink DeVane. She was a reporter at radio station WVLD Rock 106.9.

While in college, she traveled between Valdosta and Atlanta, where she landed a job as a news reporter for WAOK and later for the Turner Broadcasting Company.

Her education at VSC aided her in producing “Blacks in America,” a TBS documentary that Redwine said was one of her most powerful works.

“As a result of all of the background I got from Valdosta State College and that radio and film department, the first chance I got when I went to the Superstation, I produced a documentary,” she said.

She created material that investigated the progress of black culture in the 1970s as it related to politics, sports, entertainment and journalism, she said.

“No major station has broadcast or produced a documentary documenting the progress or the accomplishments of a race of people in a decade to a big audience, a worldwide audience like that,” she said.

Redwine said she has broken barriers for women in journalism, a male-dominated field during her era.

“It was really a male domain,” Redwine said. “If you look at all the old movies about newsrooms, they were all filled with white men smoking cigarettes … it was an all-male environment.”

Redwine said her journalistic efforts will continue and that more of her work will be submitted to VSU later in the year.

Amanda Usher is a reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times. She can be contacted at 229-244-3400 ext.1274.