Kathy Quinn

Kathy Quinn is a Kansas City television journalist and a longtime reporter at FOX 4 (WDAF-TV), where she is best known for the recurring community segment “Pay It Forward.” A Kansas City native with more than three decades in local broadcasting, she is an Emmy Award winner remembered as a fixture of the city’s morning and midday news. (Note: her documented professional name is “Kathy Quinn”; the forms “Cathy” / “Catherine” are not attested in station records.)

Biography

Early life and education

Kathy Quinn was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, and is of Mexican and Irish heritage; she is bilingual in Spanish, which she has drawn on in her reporting.¹ She is reported to have attended the University of Missouri–Kansas City.²

Early Kansas City career

Quinn began her broadcasting career in the Kansas City market in the early 1990s, with early work at KCPT (the city’s PBS station) and KSHB (NBC 41).¹ From 1992 to 2001 she co-hosted the local magazine program “Kansas City Today.”¹

FOX 4 (WDAF-TV)

Quinn joined FOX 4 / WDAF-TV in the early 2000s (reported as 2002–2003).¹³ As a general-assignment and community-features reporter, she has appeared regularly on the station’s morning newscast and on FOX 4 News at Noon.¹ She remains active at the station.³

Her signature franchise is “Pay It Forward,” which she has produced since 2008 — segments in which she surprises deserving community members with gift cards.⁴ The series has become her best-known local contribution and a recurring part of FOX 4’s community programming.

Recognition

• Emmy Award (1997) for the news series “A Child’s Prayer,” documenting Kansas City doctors — including her brother — traveling to the Dominican Republic to repair cleft lips and palates in children.¹
• A second Emmy nomination for live coverage of Kansas City’s St. Patrick’s Day parade.¹
• Impact Award from the Our Lady of Guadalupe Center, Kansas City’s largest Latino social-service agency; she has also served as an emcee and voice of the Kansas City Irish Fest.¹

Legacy

Across more than thirty years in Kansas City broadcasting — and more than two decades at a single station — Kathy Quinn has been a durable, community-minded presence on local television. Through “Pay It Forward” and her long run on FOX 4’s morning and noon newscasts, she is the kind of homegrown, human-interest journalist that defines a city’s day-to-day media memory.

See also

• fox-4-wdaf

Sources

Footnotes

1. Kathy Quinn station biography, FOX4 Kansas City (WDAF-TV) — fox4kc.com/author/kathy-quinn/ and FOX4 video bio. Born and raised in Kansas City; Mexican/Irish heritage, bilingual; KCPT/KSHB early career; co-hosted “Kansas City Today” 1992–2001; 1997 Emmy for “A Child’s Prayer”; St. Patrick’s parade Emmy nomination; Our Lady of Guadalupe Impact Award; KC Irish Fest. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

2. University of Missouri–Kansas City education detail appears only on low-reliability bio-aggregator sites. ↩

3. Kathy Quinn journalist profile, Muck Rack — muckrack.com/kathy-quinn (WDAF-TV; currently active). LinkedIn lists her as a reporter at WDAF. ↩ ↩²

4. “Pay It Forward,” FOX4 Kansas City — fox4kc.com/news/pay-it-forward/ — Quinn’s signature segment since 2008. ↩