Memorial set for beloved New Orleans TV anchor Nancy Parker

Listen to this article

A memorial has been scheduled for award-winning WVUE-TV journalist Nancy Parker, who was killed in a plane crash Aug. 16.

Media outlets report that Parker, a journalist in New Orleans for over two decades, will be memorialized in a public service at Xavier University’s Convocation Center on Friday. Doors open at 9 a.m., according to a post on her husband Glen Boyd’s Facebook page.

Parker, 53, was killed along with Franklin J.P. Augustus, 69, when the small plane they were flying in crashed near Lakefront Airport. She was working on a story on Augustus, a veteran acrobatic air show pilot and New Orleans-based member of a group that honored the Tuskegee Airmen.

Augustus radioed the control tower shortly after takeoff about unspecified problems and sought clearance to return, federal investigators said a day after the crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement that the pilot contacted the tower just before the Aerotek Pitts S-2B went down in a field not far from the airport.

“Witnesses reported observing the airplane appeared to have engine problems shortly after take-off,” the NTSB statement said. “According to witnesses the airplane then pitched down and struck the ground.”

Much of the wreckage was consumed in a post-crash fire.

The NTSB said it will release a preliminary report about the crash within a few weeks. A determination of probable cause will be issued at the conclusion of the investigation, which is expected to be completed in 12 to 24 months.

– The Associated Press contributed to this report.