COVER STORY

From Poverty to Success

The Journey of Honorary Harlemite Shon Gables 

“That’s what my life story’s been about—there’s nothing impossible, remember to believe, at least attempt to try,” says Shon Gables, an anchor on CBS 2 News This Morning, which airs from 5am-7am. “I almost flunked out of college; going into the military saved me. After I graduated from college, I rushed into a marriage that neither of us was ready for, got dumped and looked just pitiful at 210 [lbs.]. Then I just recollected myself and started over. When you fall, you just don’t stop! I dusted myself off, tried again and here I am in NY—a great opportunity.”

 Shon Gables’s story is a testament to faith in God, to perseverance and drive, to resiliency and intelligence, to education and passion. She grew up in poverty in rural Oklahoma, where she and her six siblings worked to support a household run by their single-parent mom. “I’m the last generation of my family to pick cotton. I harvested peanuts, picked peppers; my mother had a sixth grade education so we, her children, compensated for the lack of income through doing all the work.”

 Off to the University of Oklahoma on a broadcast journalism scholarship at age 17, Shon seemed fast on the preparatory road to becoming an anchor, like her idol, Bryant Gumbel. “I’ve probably known since I was five or six that I’ve wanted to be a journalist. I used to look at the TODAY show and watch Bryant Gumbel like he was God’s gift to Shon.” But the party bug bit her and she lost her scholarship. 

 Volunteering for basic training in the army helped straighten her out, and an army course in economics lit up her interest, so she returned to the University of Oklahoma as an economics major. Numerous A’s later, Shon graduated with a 3.3 average, and made an ultimatum to her college sweetheart, singer Brian Adams: “Marry me or we’re done.” His music career started to fly, with hits like “I Wanna Sex You Up” and “I Adore Mi Amor,” so they eloped and moved to Glen Cove, Long Island to live a life of wealth.

 After close to four years of marriage, “he kicked me to the curb,” Shon says. “I happened to get pregnant right before we broke up, so I moved to a small town right outside of Glen Cove, New York. I was under the idea that I was going to raise my son by myself.” Her weight ballooned; she got a job at LaGuardia Airport as a ticket agent making $6 per hour. 

 Soon she went back to Oklahoma, “to the same abyss that I had been trying to run away from.” She became a top residential real estate leasing agent, and renewed her Christian faith. “I went through the Bible and found every scripture that I thought could apply to my life.” Be faithful to the small and I’ll make you master of the many. She began tithing 10% of her small income. She relied on faith in the Lord and her education to get her through.  

Through daily exercise and a change in diet, Shon lost those excess pounds she had gained at the low point of her life. She “applied 37 times to various news agencies and was turned down flat.  If I would’ve quit at 37, I would’ve never gotten the ‘yes’ at 38.” She got her foot in the door of a local radio station. Although she was “awful at the time,” her hunger carried the day. Before long, in 1995, she had a morning radio show that became #1 in the urban market. 

Then she began working at a local television station, “fetching scripts and getting coffee for the anchor.” She was soon promoted to writer, and then associate producer, when, after the Oklahoma City bombing, the president of CNN came to the station. “He walks to me, with my news director by his side and says: ‘Who are you? I said: ‘Sir, my name is Shon Gables and I’m going to be a reporter one day. Right now I’m just a producer, but I’m gonna get there.’  He then looked at my news director and then looked at me and said: ‘I cannot believe you do not put her on the air—you are out of your mind…you will be an anchor one day.’ “ 

That prediction obviously came true since she is a rising star in the media capital of the world. And Harlem has only added to her luster. “When I came back working in news, Harlem was really the first city in New York proper that opened its arms to this new kid on the block.” The Harlem Chamber of Commerce helped acclimate her to the city, and recently distributed children’s books Shon donated.  

They also tapped her to emcee a Harlem Week fashion show this past summer, along with Harlem World’s editor-in-chief. I have found Shon Gables to be not only beautiful externally, but also warm, down-to-earth, and self-effacing. She always deflects comments on her looks, saying it’s the makeup or Edwing D’Angelos’ clothes. But Harlem has undeniably added to her sheen, and she loves our village in return: “Harlem has a rich history of incredibly successful African-Americans who I admire and look up to. Some people who don’t know how great Harlem is may knock it based upon ignorance of how far it has come. But if you have an appreciation of history and culture, it’s all here.”