SAN ANTONIO – Ursula Pari has been by my side for 25 years and a constant on San Antonio television for more than 28 years.
Her relationship with KSAT viewers is one that Ursula doesn’t take for granted. She wants to make sure they know she is thankful.
“I am incredibly humbled to have been able to do this for so long. (I thought) my life would never, in my wildest dreams, end up like this, and here we are,” Pari said. “I just still am incredulous. The idea that this is where I am and that, after all these years, I’ve stayed in one spot (and) enjoyed it — a beautiful city, made it my home, had my children grow up here. And thank you. Thank you for allowing me to do that. That is so rare in our business, really is.”
It’s a partnership behind the anchor desk for which I am thankful. When you spend so much time with someone, you get to know who they really are.
When Ursula and I conducted her “goodbye” interview, she brought up an off-camera incident, a serious accident that sent her to the hospital.
My family and I were watching Ursula play in a polo match at Olmos Park when she leaned one way, and her horse went another. Ursula fell off the horse at full speed and rolled several times. She lay in the middle of the field, motionless.
“I’ll never forget that life-and-death moment, that you were there for me. And most people probably don’t even know that,” Ursula said. “Let’s peel the curtain back. I learned later that I should have died. I got hurt in a polo game, and Steve was there because we were also teaching his daughter polo.
“And so my husband was involved, had all these horses to take care of and stuff. I had fallen off. We didn’t know how bad it was. And so, Steve, my TV husband, jumped in the ambulance instead of my real husband, and we went to BAMC. I didn’t think I was dying or anything, but later, I learned that most people die of those kinds of injuries.”
Ursula broke her ribs and had a punctured lung. I jumped in the ambulance with her when I heard her husband couldn’t go.
“Yeah, I appreciate that. I mean, what are co-anchors for, right?” she said.
“Exactly! Yeah, I was your fill-in,” I responded. “Here’s the funny thing, though. When we walk into BAMC, and they’re like, ‘OK, we’re going to have to cut her shirt off,’ I’m like, ‘I’ll be in the waiting room. I know her well. I don’t need to know her that well.’”
It was a moment of behind-the-scenes humor in what has been a tough time, a talented professional retiring and me losing a trusted co-anchor.
“I’m just a bucket of nerves and tears and what-ifs. And I don’t really have any regrets, but I just — there are so many emotions just bubbling at the surface, and it’s one after the other,” Ursula said. “One minute, I’m thrilled; the next minute, I’m crying. The next minute, I’m regretful that we, you know, are not going to continue our partnership, as we have for so many years, and a little bit fearful.”
Ursula said she’s “fearful” because she’s had a steady job since she was 14 years old, but she’s thrilled because she hopes to trade deadlines for datelines. She is planning trips to Washington D.C., back to her native Louisiana, and even an international trip to Sicily, Italy, the place where her family originated.
Ursula and I started at KSAT a few months apart. We married our spouses in San Antonio, had children here, and ultimately found this was where we were meant to be.
This is the end of a time when we could almost read each other on the set and went through similar things off it. I wish Ursula all the happiness retirement can bring, and I hope she knows she holds an important space in KSAT’s history and in my life.
“You and I found a home here, and we were just welcomed in and still are welcomed in as members of the family. You know, we’re part of the household, whether we like it or not,” Ursula said.
You can watch Ursula’s full interview in the video player below:
Want to send your well wishes to our retirees? Submit them below: