Uma Pemmaraju, original Fox News anchor and trailblazer, dead at 64

Newscaster was live with Fox when it launched in October of 1996.

Uma Pemmaraju, one of Fox News Channel's original anchors who helped launch the network in the mid-1990s, died this week at age 64.

Her death was announced by FOX News Media CEO Suzanne Scott. ""We are deeply saddened by the death of Uma Pemmaraju, who was one of FOX News Channel’s founding anchors and was on the air the day we launched," Scott said.

"Uma was an incredibly talented journalist as well as a warm and lovely person, best known for her kindness to everyone she worked with," she aded.

Pemmaraju first helmed "Fox News Now" and "Fox On Trends," the network said; after a brief departure she returned in 2003, filling a variety of roles on the network.

She was born in India and raised in Texas; she worked at a variety of local stations in Texas and the northeast before joining Fox.