Shon Gables
34 News Anchor - CBS 2 News This Morning, New York City
The life of Shon Gables may appear glamorous, but the CBS 2 morning news anchor’s climb to the top was everything but. Gables, 34, overcame poverty, divorce and the challenges of single parenting to become a respected journalist in the largest news market in the country.
Gables grew up in Oklahoma, the sixth of seven children, to a mother with a fifth-grade education. She took on menial jobs at a young age, but was often discouraged in her ambitions by those with a defeatist attitude. Encouragement came from her sixth-grade teacher, Lanee Mahoney, who saw Gables’ passion for reading and writing. Mahoney later became her high school counselor, mentor and godmother to her son, Ryan.
Gables received a scholarship to study broadcast journalism at the University of Oklahoma, but lost it through carelessness. To pay for school, she joined the Army Reserves, competed in beauty pageants and worked as an extra for Soul Train. Upon graduating she married her college sweetheart, moved to New York and had a son. When the marriage abruptly ended, she returned to Oklahoma to a minimum wage job and deplorable living conditions. Gables eventually landed a job with a radio station job. The experience was overwhelming, but it opened the doors that led to New York.
Gables began her broadcast career at KVSP Radio in Oklahoma City as news director and host. She later became associate producer at KWTV, an Oklahoma City television station. Her first on-air assignment was for KWCH, the CBS television affiliate in Wichita, Kan. She moved on to morning news anchor-general assignment reporter at WDIV-TV Detroit, then to New York.
Gables now has an optimistic attitude that she shares with others. “Anyone can be what they want to be, just don’t give up. It doesn’t mater where you came from but where you are going.”
Gables is a board member of Eagle Academy for young men in the Bronx, N.Y., and an honorary member of the Sarcoma Foundation of America, which seeks to help victims of this cancer through research and education.
