Longtime WBZ Reporter Lana Jones Dies Unexpectedly

WORCESTER, MA—Lana Jones, a veteran reporter of WBZ News Radio 1030, died suddenly on Wednesday morning at UMass Medical Center in Worcester, announced the station, and her husband and longtime journalist Steven Jones-D'Agastino.

“Lana was the consummate professional who could take a hundred page Supreme Court Decision and boil it down into a concise report for our listeners,” said Bill Flaherty, WBZ program director, in a statement. “She knew everyone and everything. She will be greatly missed.”

Jones started as a general assignment reporter at WBZ, joining in 1991 as a news writer, editor and fill-in anchor. WBZ's announcement notes that Jones was part of the award-winning coverage of the priest sex abuse scandal, the crash of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane and the Worcester warehouse fire.

Husband Steven Jones-D'Agostino, who called Jones his best friend, love of his life, and spiritual partner, wrote that Jones "has died tall in the saddle." Jones-D'Agostino said that Jones became ill on the way home, went straight to bed and passed out on the hallway floor outside the bedroom about 5 a.m. She suffered a heart attack on the way to the hospital, and was pronounced dead at 7:10 a.m. on Wednesday.

Services will be scheduled for Mercadante Funeral Home in Worcester, followed by a "Celebration of Lana's Life" on Sept. 4, which would have been their 35th anniversary.

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