PBS Journalist Gwen Ifill Dies of Cancer

PBS journalist and debate moderator Gwen Ifill and then-Democratic vice presidential nominee, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del. (L) shake hands at the end of his vice presidential debate with Republican rival, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in St. Louis, Mo, in this file photo. (AP Photo/Don Emmert)

NEW YORK—Gwen Ifill, the veteran journalist and co-anchor of PBS' “NewsHour” with Judy Woodruff, died on Monday of cancer, the network said.

She was 61.

President Barack Obama participates in a televised town hall event at Lerner Theatre in Elkhart, Ind., with PBS NewsHour co-anchor and manager editor Gwen Ifill, ion this file photo. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

A former newspaper reporter, Ifill switched to television and worked for NBC News and PBS. She moderated two vice presidential debates.

She took a leave from her nightly show for health reasons earlier this year, never making public her illness. A week ago, she went out on leave again, taking her away from election night coverage.

Debate moderator Gwen Ifill is wheeled into the site the vice presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis, in this file photo. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sara Just, PBS “NewsHour” executive producer, called Ifill “a standard bearer for courage, fairness and integrity in an industry going through seismic change.”