She moved from journalism to public relations in the late 1960s, balancing this with her broadcasting work.<\/p>\n
Saunders came to strong public prominence with her regular appearances on TV1\u2019s Beauty and the Beast, hosted by Selwyn Toogood.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were the first group of people … to actually speak publicly about sexual abuse, about contraception, adoption … a lot of those letters were genuinely asking for serious advice on serious matters,\u201d Saunders said in a 2011 ScreenTalk interview.<\/p>\n
Catherine Saunders was a longtime NZ radio and television personality. Photo \/ file<\/p>\n
Saunders was known to have a wicked sense of humour and was a strong campaigner for women\u2019s rights, pushing strongly for equal pay in an industry that was slow to adapt. She also observed, first-hand, the generational attitudes towards women on television.<\/p>\n
Other television appearances included being the narrator of the 1965 Mobil Song Quest, won by a young opera singer, Kiri Te Kanawa.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was only allowed to talk about the women\u2019s hair, their clothing, and the floral decorations in the hall,\u201d Saunders told another legendary broadcaster, Judy Bailey, in an Australian Women\u2019s Weekly article.<\/p>\n
While she admired Bailey, Saunders once said Bailey\u2019s \u201cMother of the Nation\u201d moniker was better suited to another longtime broadcaster, Marama Martin.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still maintain [Martin] had the most mellifluous voice ever heard on New Zealand radio or television,\u201d Saunders said in the 2011 interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was a wonderful television announcer. The country adored her because she embraced them with this great warmth of personality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saunders said Martin was a big woman, spiritually and physically. \u201cShe\u2019d never be on television now, because we\u2019ve all got to be what …? Eight stone, blonde, tall, leggy and somehow they\u2019ve all now got big tits, suddenly, which is quite in contrast to the rest of their bodies. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat is one of the most unbelievable changes in what is required in appearance now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Broadcasters Keith Bracey (top left) Bob Alderton (top right), Catherine Saunders, Peter Sinclair and Sally Sloman in 1984. Photo \/ file<\/p>\n
A New Zealand TV Weekly article in 1966 outlined Saunders\u2019 own prowess as a reporter, in a 1960s style that might have infuriated her: \u201cCatherine is noted for an extremely efficient memory, enabling her to deliver long, and often dry and complicated announcements without stumbling or surreptitious glances at her script. <\/p>\n
\u201cCatherine has another forte too, a comparatively rare one among women announcers. She is at her best on outside broadcast commentaries, with a most admirable flow of language, remarkably free from clich\u00e9 and repetition. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd she has the added knack of appearing to enjoy every minute of whatever she is doing, from compering an antique car rally to participating in a teenage dance broadcast.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saunders later had her own RNZ slot and produced RNZ\u2019s Top of the Morning for five years. <\/p>\n
As a public relations specialist, she worked for many years at the NZ Dairy Board and later the Auckland Visitors Bureau before establishing her own firm, Griffon & Saunders Public Relations.<\/p>\n
In 2001, she was appointed an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to broadcasting and the community.<\/p>\n
She dealt with tragedy in her life, including the sudden deaths of her husband, Bill, in May 1995 and her daughter-in-law Kate last year. <\/p>\n
Saunders is survived by her son Anthony, daughter Amy and her five grandchildren.<\/p>\n
A celebration of her life will be held at 1pm on Thursday, April 2, at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Auckland\u2019s Balmoral.<\/p>\n
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand\u2019s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She moved from journalism to public relations in the late 1960s, balancing this with her broadcasting work. Saunders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[184360,13790,1975,9516,3795,13500,6179,7126,156,3938,5844,3223,13630,424,1357,111,139,69,3109,1123,161041,12825,6436,80],"class_list":["post-346352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-184360","tag-a","tag-at","tag-broadcaster","tag-broadcasting","tag-catherine","tag-died","tag-dies","tag-entertainment","tag-executive","tag-journalist","tag-legend","tag-legendary","tag-life","tag-lived","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-public","tag-relations","tag-saunders","tag-stunning","tag-well","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}