Jeanne Gray McDonald; Pioneer Radio and TV Talk Show Host

Jeanne Gray McDonald, 82, pioneer radio and television talk show hostess. Originally an actress in silent films and Broadway musicals and a model for national magazines, the former Jeanne Gray wrote, produced and hosted the Los Angeles-based, Emmy award-winning radio program “The Woman’s Voice” in the 1940s. As television evolved in the 1950s, she hosted “The Jeanne Gray Show” for KNXT Channel 2 with Johnny Carson as her announcer. She later hosted a travel series, “Hollywood Is the World.” Gray was the founder and first president of Radio and Television Women of Southern California, which named its annual award in her honor. After her marriage to Dr. John B. McDonald, she became active in civic organizations and wrote a reference book about women’s clubs, “The Power of Belonging.” She founded 10 chapters and was a national trustee of the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, and served as president of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce Women’s Division, the Daughters of the American Revolution, Footlighters, St. John’s Hospital Auxiliary and the Los Angeles Orphanage Guild. On Tuesday in Bel-Air of cancer.