BATON ROUGE — WBRZ's 70 for 70 will profile some of the personalities who have been on Channel 2's air since it went to broadcast 70 years ago.

This week on 70 for 70, WBRZ is honoring one of its own: Andrea Clesi, longtime anchor and "Walter Cronkite of Baton Rouge."

Clesi anchored at WBRZ from 1977 to 2008, covering everything topics like education and desegregation. First, she covered the teacher strike of 1979 that shut schools down for two weeks, followed by a landmark desegregation trial in 1980.

Her contemporaries, including former WBRZ station manager John Spain, have nothing but great things to say about Clesi's time behind the desk, which itself broke boundaries. She was one of the city's first female news anchors at a time when the broadcast news industry was primarily men. 

"She was on the cutting edge of that," Spain said. "And proved to the world that, not only was that the right thing to do, but that it was the better broadcast because of their involvement, because of their perspective."

The community she covered was also by her side for the most tragic moment of her life, the 1998 loss of her 18-year-old son Tony in a fatal car crash.

"Losing my child was the hardest thing I've ever gone through in my life and getting back in front of a camera after losing my child after about a four week time off was the second hardest thing,” she said. "So we started a campaign after my son's death because tragically he was not wearing a seat belt and we did a great campaign called Buckle Up For Tony. We kinda let people know how important seat belts were and were very successful with that. I still have people come up to me and say ‘You know, I buckle up for Tony.’"

She was even recognized by President Bill Clinton for her efforts.

You can find the full 70 for 70 list here.