Brenda Buttner, a senior business correspondent and the host of Bulls & Bears on Fox News, died of cancer on Monday.
She was 55 years old.
With a heavy heart, Fox News colleague Neil Cavuto passed along this sad news to viewers a couple hours ago, via an emotional tribute to Buttner on his show.
“Brenda was among the very first to put a kind female face to this once-staid old male batch of the business,” Cavuto said, adding:
“She took stock of life more than stock in life.”
A financial reporter, Buttner graduated from Harvard University in 1983 and spent two years as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where she graduated with high honors in politics and economics.
She kicked off her professional career at an NBC affiliate in Reno, Nevada, prior to hosting CNBC’s The Money Club and serving as a a contributor to that network from 1990 to 1998.
The New Jersey resident joined Fox News in 2000 and served as a senior business correspondent there ever since.
“In her sickest moments, battling an unrelenting cancer, there was Brenda, cheering you on,” Cavuto added on air.
“Business journalism is never going to be the same. I just don’t know, now that she’s gone, whether we’ll ever be.”
Others who knew Buttner well also paid tribute to her on social media.
“She loved rainy days, cloudy places, motorcycles and her children most of all,” wrote ex-Fox News commentator Tobin Smith on Facebook.
“I told her that I would spread a few of her ashes in her beloved Edinborough outside her favorite pub…she loved that idea.
“She called me her ‘office husband’ and I told her that ‘all I got was crap from her and none the benefits’ and she would laugh a hearty obscenity in response…
“My role in her life the last few years was to make her laugh…and I accomplished that goal on many phone calls. She was the type of friend you could not speak with with for months and then talk like we had just left off from yesterday.
“My dear Brenda Buttner..she was the little sister I never had. I miss her terribly and yet she is in my heart forever and an inspiration to all that knew her and her battle.”
Eric Bolling, another Fox News co-worker, Tweeted his condolences Monday afternoon after the news broke.
“Our colleague and my friend Brenda Buttner passed today,” he wrote. “She fought cancer heroically. RIP Brenda. We will miss you.”
And Greta Van Susteren wrote simply: “We will all miss Brenda.”
The late reporter is survived by her two daughters.
May Brenda Buttner rest in peace.