OTTAWA—Betty Kennedy, once one of Canada’s best-known television personalities, has died. She was 91.

The veteran journalist and broadcaster was for decades one of the country’s most recognized voices and faces.

For 27 years, she hosted the Betty Kennedy Show on Toronto’s CFRB radio, where she is credited with interviewing some 25,000 guests, from former prime minister Pierre Trudeau to actress Debbie Reynolds.

And for 33 years, she was the lone female panellist on CBC’s Front Page Challenge.

Kennedy’s life was a series of firsts and extraordinary twists on which books and documentaries were based.

As a teenager she marched up to the editor’s desk at the Ottawa Citizen and declared, “I can do anything a boy can do!” The man laughed and then let her do everything a boy would have done - fetch coffee and sandwiches for the reporters. After writing obituaries and photo cutlines as her apprenticeship, she was awarded her own beat and soon walked into radio and television with the instincts of an inquisitive print journalist.

Kennedy fought long and hard to become one of the first women journalists allowed into China after the great revolution.

She was inducted into both the Canadian Broadcasting Hall of Fame and the Canadian News Hall of Fame and was named an officer of the Order of Canada.

She also served a brief stint as a senator, appointed to Canada’s upper house by then-prime minister Jean Chrétien in June 2000. She retired in January 2001 upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75.

Canadian politician Bob Rae said he got to know her well over many years and that she was a “model of integrity.”

“She was an icon of Canadian journalism. Her interviews were marked by deep research and strong personal interest — I always felt like it was a gentle but tough examination,” he wrote in an email to The Star.

The CBC’s Peter Mansbridge recalled how Kennedy made him feel at ease as a young reporter.

“When I first met Betty Kennedy I was a young reporter working for The National. She was a network star because of Front Page Challenge and her work in Toronto on CFRB,” Mansbridge said in a statement. “But she immediately treated me as an equal and made me feel totally at ease. She was always classy and elegant in the way she went about her business and was adored by her fans. Broadcasting and journalism lost a leading lady with her passing.”

Kennedy wrote two books: Gerhard: A Love Story, about her first husband who died in 1975, and Hurricane Hazel.

She married G. Allan Burton, head of Simpsons department stores, in 1976. He died in 2003.

In a 1986 interview with the Star, Wally Crouter, long-time host of CFRB’s morning show, called Kennedy, “the best interviewer on the air. Betty is the one person who listens. She has warmth and empathy.”

Charles Templeton, who appeared with Kennedy as a panelist on Front Page Challenge, echoed Crouter’s words. He described her as “unquestionably one of the best interviewers in the country.

“She is always able to ask the most difficult and pointed questions but without giving offence. Though there is a gentle and calm air about her, there is steel underneath.”

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Templeton recalled the controversial 1969 episode of Front Page Challenge when Gordon Sinclair asked champion swimmer Elaine Tanner about swimming during menstruation. “Betty never blinked,” Templeton said.

Kennedy attributed her success to the fact that she avoids being “overly judgmental” and gives the people being interviewed “a chance to present their case.”

Said Kennedy in a 1982 interview with the Star, “I think I’ll be remembered for my common-sense approach to things.”

Kennedy is survived by sons Mark, Shawn and D’Arcy Kennedy and daughter Tracy Brown.

With files from Toronto Star archives