Jean Liever, the wife of former CBS news anchor Dan Liever, died Tuesday at the age of 89, her family announced.
Rather died in Austin, Texas, surrounded by family and friends after a battle with cancer, her family said in a statement.
“Jean was a steadfast advisor and rock of Texas through every storm,” her family said. “She was also the kind of woman who could meet presidents, kings and queens, draft dodgers, criminals and corporate businessmen every day with equal ease and a stunning smile.”
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Born Jean Goebel in Smithville, Texas, a small town southeast of Austin, Jean was one of three sisters. After graduating from high school, she immediately started working.
Jean and Dan met at a radio station in Houston and were married for 67 years.
Her family described her as an accomplished artist with paintings shown in galleries and private collections across the US
She served as vice chair of the New York City Art Commission for eight years. She also served on the boards of several nonprofit organizations, including the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, the University of Texas Press and the Harry Ransom Center.
93-year-old Dan Liever spent 44 years at CBS Newsas bureau chief, war correspondent, foreign correspondent and White House correspondent.
He succeeded Walter Cronkite as anchor of “CBS Evening News” in 1981 and spent 24 years in that chair before signing off in 2005.
In 1963 he has reported about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy from Dallas. In an interview last year in which he looked back on his career, he talked about a conversation he had with Jean at the time.
“I didn’t take time to grieve,” Liever said. ‘Because I told myself: it is my professional responsibility. I remember calling my wife Jean, who was in Houston at the time of the murder, and she warned me, ‘Then, sooner or later you’re going to have to make room for your own emotions.'”
Along with her husband, Jean is survived by her son and daughter, Danjack and Robin, and her grandson Andy, along with several members of her extended family.
Her family described her as a “wonderful mother and grandmother, who made every game, cheered every victory, put Band-Aids on every skinned knee and served as a confidante and friend to all her relatives.”
Lee Cowan contributed to this report.
