Every Life a Story

A look at the extraordinary career and personal life of Natalie Jacobson, from an immigrant childhood to becoming a pioneering female news anchor.

Throughout her forty-year career in broadcast television, including thirty-five as a reporter and anchor on Channel 5 in Boston, Natalie Jacobson told the stories of countless lives. Now she tells her own. Every Life a Story takes readers behind the scenes of the extraordinary career of a woman who rose from an immigrant childhood in Chicago to become the first woman to anchor the evening news in Boston. Natalie was among the most trusted people of greater Boston. Her viewers thought of her as family. Natalie brings readers on an uplifting journey possible only in America. When faced with no girls need apply, she saw a challenge, not an obstacle. Her father had set an example of fortitude, educating himself and rising from cab driver to president of Gillette North America. Generations of viewers recall Natalie and her husband Chet Curtis as “Nat and Chet,” beloved co-anchors of NewsCenter5 on WCVB-TV Boston. referred to them as “the de facto first couple of Boston, very likely the city's best-known conveyors of news since Paul Revere.” Their lives seemed an open book as trials of sickness, death, pregnancy, birth, parenting, working motherhood, and eventually divorce played out on a very public stage. Ultimately, this book offers a sharp contrast to today's divisive media landscape. Believing EVERY life is a story, Natalie feels, “This book is as much your story as it is mine. We reporters were there to give you information that was accurate, information to help you make informed decisions. We invited you to be part of it and you were. I used to hope when you tuned in to our newscast, you took a deep breath and relaxed, feeling you were among friends. You were home. I hope this book brings you the same comfort.”