C.E. Byrd High School graduate Tom Jarriel, who spent 38 years in prominent roles as he won six Emmy awards on the ABC News team, has died at age 89, the network announced Thursday.

Jarriel was born in Georgia but grew up in Shreveport. He launched his career in broadcast journalism in 1958 at KPRC TV in Houston, and was hired by ABC seven years later.

He quickly gained attention for his coverage of the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968. A year later, Jarriel was elevated to Chief White House Correspondent, covering presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and the Watergate scandal along with the end of the Vietnam War.

In 1979, he was named anchor of ABC’s Weekend Report 30-minute nightly newscast, and also joined the network’s fledgling primetime news magazine 20/20 – which has become a staple of network news.

Jarriel collected his Emmy awards for six stories in a 10-year span from 1981-91. He considered his series of reports on the plight of children suffering in Romanian orphanages as the “great, defining story” of his career.

Jarriel spent more than two decades on 20/20 before his retirement in 2002.

The network said he is survived by his wife of 57 years, Joan, and their three sons.