One year ago: Anne Roberts Nelson

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Anne Roberts Nelson was a pioneering television executive with CBS who negotiated contracts for long-running hits such as ‘I Love Lucy’ and ‘Gunsmoke.’ She also was one of the first women to break through the entertainment industry’s glass ceiling. One year ago, she died of natural causes at her home in Baldwin Hills. She was 86.

Along with making breakthroughs for women, Nelson also was CBS’ longest-serving employee. She was hired in 1945 and was with the company for 64 years, working until just half a year before her death.

She had a variety of duties along the way, including negotiating contracts for CBS mainstays ‘I Love Lucy,’ ‘Gunsmoke,’ ‘All in the Family,’ ‘The Red Skelton Show,’ ‘The Wild, Wild West,’ ‘Perry Mason’ and ‘The Young and the Restless,’ among others.

Despite toiling in a male-dominated industry, Nelson said that she never felt downtrodden.

‘I don’t like generalizations,’ Nelson said in the book ‘Women Who Run the Show’ by Mollie Gregory. ‘I don’t like to be categorized as a woman. I like to be categorized as a competent person.’

Read more in Nelson’s obituary that was published June 25, 2009.

-- Michael Farr