After more than 45 years of reporting and anchoring thousands of news stories, Betsey Bruce will call it quits Dec. 16.

Bruce, now a reporter on KTVI (Channel 2), was the first woman to report news on a daily basis locally and appears to be the longest-serving television journalist in local history.

"I've recognized there are other things I want to do, and I want to do them while I'm healthy," said Bruce, 67, with a laugh.

Noting that she had back surgery last year, Bruce added, "Sitting around in a live truck all day is probably not the best thing for that."

Bruce, a native of Buffalo, N.Y., came to the University of Missouri in 1966 to study journalism, and was editor of the "Maneater," a student-run newspaper, in 1969.

Shortly after graduating in 1970, Bruce was hired as a news writer at KMOV (Channel 4), which then used the call letters KMOX.

When a reporting job opened in January 1971, Bruce landed it, "with partial thanks to the FCC, which at the time was encouraging stations to increase the number of women on newscasts."