Linda Mason, CBS News veteran and trailblazing journalist, dies at age 84

Linda Mason, a trailblazing journalist who spent 47 years with CBS News, has died at the age of 84.

She died peacefully Wednesday night surrounded by family, according to a statement from CBS News.

After starting as a radio desk assistant in 1966, she went on to become the first female producer of the "CBS Evening News," working with legendary anchors Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather. She would go on to hold several high-profile roles at CBS News, including as a senior producer for "CBS Evening News," executive producer of "CBS Sunday Morning," vice president of public affairs and head of CBS News' standards department.

For "Sunday Morning," she covered major international stories that included former President Ronald Reagan's first trip to the Soviet Union, the funeral of Japanese Emperor Hirohito and the unrest in China before the uprising in Tiananmen Square.  

Mason also oversaw and served as executive producer for the documentary series "CBS Reports." Other projects she helmed included the CBS News magazine "Eye to Eye" and two primetime specials, "60 Minutes … 25 Years" and "60 Minutes at 30," looking back on the storied history of the Sunday night program.

Over the course of her career, Mason earned 13 Emmy Awards, three Peabody Awards, an Edward R. Murrow Award, an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award and the Grand Prize of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards.

Born and raised in Middletown, New York, Mason earned a B.A. degree with honors in international relations from Brown University in 1964. In 1991, she was honored with the school's William Rogers Award, given to the person voted the outstanding Brown alumnus of the year.

Mason received her M.S. degree in filmmaking from Syracuse University in 1965, where she was a university fellow.