Longtime television news anchor J.C. Hayward is retiring from WUSA Channel 9 after four decades on the air, following a hiatus that began in late 2013, when she was linked to allegations of financial irregularities at a D.C. charter school whose board she chaired.
The first female news anchor in the Washington area 43 years ago, Hayward has been a prominent supporter of local charities and is a familiar face to many residents. She said Friday that she is grateful for the opportunities she had and the people she met at Channel 9.
“I’ve always wanted to leave a legacy,” she said by phone from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where she lives much of the year. “I was blessed. I had an incredible, fantastic career. I started when women weren’t in the business. It was a predominantly white, male profession, and I had the opportunity to enter and to make a mark.”
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[Profile: More than 40 years on the anchor desk. And then she was gone.]
Hayward has not been on the air since October 2013, when she was placed on leave pending an investigation into the leadership of an alternative charter school in the District. The D.C. attorney general named her in a lawsuit involving an effort to divert millions of dollars from the charter school for at-risk teenagers.
Hayward was chairwoman of the Options Public Charter School board and allegedly signed off on contracts that steered tax dollars to two for-profit companies founded and run by school managers, according to the complaint. The lawsuit also alleges that she helped incorporate one of the companies and had an ownership interest in it.
The civil case has been on hold since July as the U.S. attorney’s office conducts a criminal investigation. The federal government filed a request Friday to extend the stay in the case until May.
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Hayward declined to comment on the allegations but said the civil case and criminal investigation had no bearing on her decision to retire.
“I’ve moved on with my life,” she said. “Sometimes life hands you cards that you don’t exactly like, but you have to play them, and you can’t just sit around and be sad about the hand that was dealt you.”
She said she recently celebrated her 70th birthday and felt it was the right time to say goodbye: “The one thing that I always wanted to be able to do was to know when to exit gracefully.”
Hayward’s lawyer, Jeffrey S. Jacobovitz, has said that she is innocent and was unaware of the alleged scheme. He said Hayward’s work for Options was just one example of the volunteerism that has made Hayward a “stellar member of the D.C. community.”
Longtime Channel 9 anchor Andrea Roane announced Hayward’s retirement during the noontime news on Friday.
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“It was tough just reading that because it is the end of the era,” Roane said afterward. “Even knowing it’s what she’s happy with now, it brought a tear to me knowing that another legend is not on the air.”
The station posted pictures of Hayward at different points in her career and a news segment about her breast cancer treatment, which she televised in 2012 to raise awareness.
Friend and supporter Rocky Twyman said he has mixed emotions about Hayward’s retirement and thinks she should have been allowed to stay on the air because she has not been convicted of a crime.
“I think it’s a great loss to the community. I must say that, because she was just like the queen of community service here,” Twyman said. “She impacted the lives of so many people.”
WUSA’s president and general manager, Mark Burdett, thanked Hayward in a statement Friday.
“J.C. has been an inspiration to all, as she devoted her passion and energy every day to WUSA 9,” he said. “For more than 40 years J.C. worked tirelessly to inform and serve the community in an effort to help make Washington, D.C., a better place to live and work.”
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