Patrece Dayton, Kevin Orpurt will be saying goodbye this week

Two high profile on-air personalities at WTHI-TV 10 will be saying their goodbyes later this week.

Patrece Dayton, evening news anchor, and Kevin Orpurt, chief meteorologist, have been told that their positions are being eliminated, Dayton told the Tribune-Star on Monday.

She has been at the station for nearly 37 years and Orpurt for 42 years.

Dayton, who said they learned the news last week, wasn’t given a reason but she believes the job eliminations relate to budget cuts; the station is owned by Allen Media Group, as are stations in Lafayette and Fort Wayne.

In April, sports director Rick Semmler was let go. Dayton described the latest job cuts as another round of changes.

“We will be saying goodbye at the end of the 6 p.m. news this Thursday. Together we’ll be saying goodbye,” she said. “And then, that’s it.”

Dayton and Orpurt have been on the evening news together “for a long, long time,” she said.

She added, “They have given us a chance to say goodbye and we both appreciate that.”

Reacting to the loss of her long-time job, she said, “We’re both devastated.” After so many years, “You become a family … we’re breaking up that family.”

She and Orpurt had both “wanted to go out on our own terms,” said Dayton, who is a news anchor and managing editor. She also is a co-head trainer, along with Rondrell Moore, of new reporters.

Dayton was hired in May 1988 and while hired as a general assignment reporter, she began serving as weekend anchor within two months. She became a main anchor about a year later.

Gary Yoder, an Allen Media Group regional vice president/general manager for WTHI, WLFI in Lafayette and WFFT in Fort Wayne could not immediately be reached for comment late Monday afternoon. The Tribune-Star attempted to reach Yoder by phone and email.

As far as the future, Dayton said she has no specific plans at this point.

“I’m a firm believer that when God closes a door, He opens a window,” she said. “I’m a firm believer that everything will be okay.”

She has yet to decide if she will remain in Terre Haute; she has family in Florida, where she went to college.

“The Wabash Valley has been my home. I literally grew up here. It was my first job out of college. I got married here. I had my two boys here,” she said.

“The people in this community and the entire Wabash Valley are very dear to me. I appreciate them for letting me in their homes for nearly 37 years,” she said.

The Tribune-Star has yet to speak to Orpurt.

Image Credits and Reference: https://www.yahoo.com/news/patrece-dayton-kevin-orpurt-saying-001600828.html