Mearl Purvis grew up on the traditions that have molded her into an award winning journalist and a community engaged person. Fairness, family, gratitude and compassion.

Her stories often examine the lives of the unsung heroes and heroines making a difference in their communities. Ask her what her favorite past time activities are and with enthusiasm she will say reading to school children, enjoying art and music and interior design.

Her pride and joy is daughter Margaret Williams, a leading community activist in her own right, who directs one of the nations’ largest and most prestigious non- profit organizations dedicated to eradicating hunger.

Mearl has won eight Regional Emmy Awards, the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award, the equally prestigious George Foster Peabody Award and the J.C. Penny Missouri Award. The graduate of Jackson State University in Jackson, MS Mearl was trained to be a well-rounded journalist and learned how to write, edit, produce as well as anchor.

Her career assignments have been vast and impressive. A documentary on the life of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte took her to Paris, France and the French countryside. A personal trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia ended with a special report after Mearl toured Tuol Sleng, the Genocide Museum, where Pol Pot’s murderous regime killed more than 12,000 people. From the horrors of what hatred can destroy to the power of what love can create, she calls her private moments with the Dali Lama – a ‘soul makeover’. Mearl has shared a stage with four world leaders including Desmond Tutu, Mikhail Gorbachev, U. S. presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

Before starting her impressive tenure here in Memphis, Mearl reported and anchored in Charlotte, NC; New Haven, CT; Nashville, TN; and, Jackson, MS.

She can be seen weeknights at 5, 6, 9 and 10 pm on FOX13 evening newscasts, and she invites FOX13 viewers and fans to always say hello while she is out in the community.