Obituary: Dianne White Clatto, nation’s first black TV weathercaster

[Sherman A1]

As the tumultuous ’60s descended upon the nation, Dianne White Clatto emerged unwittingly and unceremoniously as St. Louis’ own embodiment of civil rights history.

In 1960, the St. Louis native graduated from the University of Missouri at Columbia, where she was among the first of a handful of black students. That same year, she became the first African American in St. Louis to model for Stix, Baer & Fuller and Saks Fifth Avenue. Two short years later, White Clatto joined what was then KSD-TV (now KSDK NewsChannel 5), becoming the first full-time African-American weathercaster in the country.

She died on Monday (May 4, 2015), at McCormack House on Olive near Vandeventer, a short distance and a world away from where she grew up on Vandeventer and Cook in north St. Louis. Until last week, Mrs. White Clatto had been a longtime resident of the Central West End. She was 77.

A rare beauty with a distinctive voice, Mrs. White Clatto graced St. Louis airwaves for more than 40 years in both television and radio. She had planned, she said, to be a psychiatric social worker.

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