LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — For WVLK Radio host Jack Pattie, it seemed only fitting to dedicate his morning talk radio broadcast to Sue Wylie, a longtime friend of Pattie who died after a car accident on Tuesday.
Wylie last spoke on his radio show on Monday.
Joining Pattie on the phone Wednesday morning were close personal friends of Wylie, including former LEX 18 anchors Nancy Cox and Robyn Leach (known previously as Robyn Rabbeth).
“For it to end so suddenly, a life like that, I’m just sad,” Cox told Pattie, who responded by saying, “I am too.”
Leach was Wylie’s closest friend. She asked Pattie at the start of their on-air discussion to keep things “light,” believing it was the only way she could get through it.
“I’m trying not to be sad because you know how Sue loved being on the go,” Leach said. “Every day she arranged to have lunch with someone or go see someone, she loved shopping and going to Keeneland, traveling, and she loved wearing those high heels.”
She stopped wearing those high heels when she was 88, and even then, she wanted to wear them, Leach said. She had well over 200 pairs of shoes.
They discussed how Frank Sinatra once complimented Wylie’s singing voice while he was at a Miami TV station.
“People often said, ‘your best friend is 30 years older than you?’ Well she was ageless,” Leach said. “You never thought about age with Sue. She was so stimulating. We were great confidants, and oh my gosh, could she tell a joke.”
Cox said it’s important to keep telling stories about Wylie to keep her memory and her influence alive.
As Kentucky’s first female anchor, she paved the way for Leach and Cox. It’s hard to overstate how important Sue was to women in broadcasting, Leach said.
Without Sue, Cox said she believes women wouldn't have made the progress they made as quickly, saying it would have taken several more years.
“She broke down so many barriers for women like me,” Cox said.
Her role as an anchor set off a domino effect, impacting stations in other cities like Cincinnati, Louisville, and Nashville who were looking for a way to gain an edge over their competitors, Cox said.
“She didn’t just break down doors, she blasted them open,” Cox said. “Her influence has no bounds.”
“She was a mentor to me, and she encouraged all women at the station,” Leach said.“She would often give us advice, whether we wanted it or not, and it was always good advice.”
Leach remembered one day that was an especially tough one for her.
“I said I’ve had it, that’s it, I’m out of here,’ she said ‘Robyn you dry your eyes, you get back out there, you are the best reporter we have, you're going to finish your story and it’s going to be on the air tonight,’ and that was the kind of person she was and of course I did exactly what she said,” Leach said.
Wylie spent her post-LEX 18 career at WVLK as a host before retiring from broadcasting completely.
"As my mother used to say,” Pattie said, “They broke the mold after they made her, there was never one before her and there will never be one be like her after her"
For Pattie, her death has been tough, just like everyone else.
“It was like getting hit in the head with a bat,” Pattie said. “I just had her on the air Monday.”
Their conversation, which you can listen to online here, focused on the day's top political stories. Despite her age, 90, her voice hadn't faded.
“Politics is a mean and ugly business, isn’t it Jack?” she said at one point.
She also heard from longtime listeners who called in.
“I wish you could come back for five minutes every morning,” one man said.
Before getting off the air, Pattie, Cox, and Leach came to an agreement; they’ll get together soon to share more stories of their dear friend.
