The day Katie came to town

When she visited our city in June 1996, nobody could have known Katie Couric would one day would make television history as the first female solo anchor of a network newscast.

Sure, she had a loyal following as the co-anchor of NBC’s “Today” show. Still, none of us could have anticipated the enormous interest and media frenzy surrounding her debut as anchor of CBS's nightly newscast on Tuesday.

She came to Macon 10 years ago as the commencement speaker for Mercer’s graduation She drew a near-capacity crowd to the Coliseum.

She shared her keynote speech with about 1,000 graduates in the university’s business, engineering and education schools and its liberal arts college.

Couric’s speech was somewhat of a homecoming. Her father, John M. Couric, grew up in Dublin and was a 1941 graduate of Mercer. He also was a former reporter for The Macon Telegraph.