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7 Pioneer Rita Bell Succumbs to Cancer
Reported by Action News Team
Web produced by Jennifer DiDomenico

	Bell was the first female weather forecaster in Detroit and hosted 7's Prize Movie for 21 years.

The Channel 7 family has
lost one of its most popular and beloved personalities. For 21 years, Rita Bell hosted
Prize Movie on weekday mornings.

According to her husband, the 78-year-old actress and singer succumbed to cancer Tuesday.

Rita was discovered by a Channel 7 production chief while she was working for the United Way in Detroit. At Channel 7's 50th Birthday
Celebration in 1996, Bell reminisced about her start on television.

"Remembering my first night on television, I tried
very hard to be calm, cool, collected and to act poised and with dignity, but my pounding heart I felt could be heard all around the nation, especially in Kokomo, Indiana. Why Kokomo, I don't know," Bell told a crowd.

Rita Bell was a true television pioneer. She was the first female weather forecaster in Detroit. She once said she aired over 6,000 movies as hostess of Prize Movie, and added that she watched every one of them.

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