Following stints at
WSAZ-TV in
Huntington, West Virginia,
KTVY in
Oklahoma City and
WTVF in
Nashville, Thomas-Laury started at
WPVI-TV in Philadelphia on February 20, 1978, as noon co-anchor and reporter, beating out WTVF colleague
Oprah Winfrey for the position. In 1983, she was promoted to the 5 p.m. newscast, co-anchoring it until 2003 with now-retired news anchor
Marc Howard. At the same time, she frequently substituted for
Jim Gardner when he was unable to anchor the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts. She also has done the monthly
Fast Forward series, a show geared toward teenagers; it is currently hosted by Rick Williams. She has taken over the African-American-oriented, locally produced
Visions program (now named
New Visions) from
Vernon Odom. Thomas-Laury is one of a few African American women to anchor in the Philadelphia market, a group that includes WPVI anchor
Tamala Edwards, former
WCAU anchor
Renee Chenault-Fattah,
KYW anchor Natasha Brown, and
WTXF anchor
Joyce Evans.
Medical leave In 2002, Thomas-Laury began to experience health problems. Her first symptoms were tingling in her feet, which she assumed was from too much power walking. Her problem was initially misdiagnosed. According to a WPVI special report from November, 2005, Lisa finally ended up at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, where she got the right diagnosis: she was suffering from
POEMS Syndrome, which can cause nerve damage, organ enlargement, hormonal imbalances, and skin changes. She went on medical leave from
Action News for almost a year and returned to work on September 11, 2003. She was scheduled to return to hosting the annual Thanksgiving Day parade, which she had missed in 2002, but her health problems returned, causing her to miss the parade again and return to medical leave. In May 2004,
Jim Gardner announced on the air that Lisa Thomas-Laury would be permanently leaving her anchor duties (but not leaving WPVI altogether, as Gardner said that the door would be open for her to return when her health permitted) in order to have more time to focus on her recovery.
Return to broadcasting During WPVI's 11:00 p.m. newscast on November 22, 2006, Thomas-Laury made a guest appearance and announced that she would return to the station in the next few weeks. She appeared the following day, November 23, 2006, during the broadcast of Philadelphia's annual Thanksgiving Day parade, the parade she once co-hosted. She returned to
Action News on January 2, 2007, with a report on the opening of Oprah Winfrey's school for girls in South Africa. Since that time, Thomas-Laury has frequently filed reports for the noon, 5 p.m., 6 p.m., and 11 p.m. newscasts and has also filled in on them as anchor. ==References==