‘Good Day Atlanta’ anchor Sharon Lawson leaves Fox 5 after seven years

Her departure follows that of veteran medical correspondent Beth Galvin, 58, and investigative reporter Randy Travis, 62, on Tuesday, who also took buyouts as Fox 5 aims to cut its budget in a challenging ad environment for broadcast TV.

Fellow Fox 5 anchor Courtney Bryant, in Lawson’s Facebook comment section, wrote “You are a shining light! We will miss your talent, poise, sense of humor, and fashion sense. Wherever you go, I know you will continue to sparkle. I’ll miss you!”

Before Fox 5, Sharon, 54, worked for 14 years as an anchor/reporter at an NBC affiliate in Miami. She has also worked at stations in Salisbury, Maryland; Dayton, Ohio; and Minneapolis. According to her Fox 5 bio (since deleted), she has interviewed the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Muhammad Ali.

She was born to Jamaican parents in Toronto before moving to Florida in the mid-1980s. Her bio noted that “Lawson’s path to broadcast journalism started at age 5 when her mother ― and biggest supporter ― spied her practicing intros and outros with a hairbrush and a mirror.”