Marianne Banister is the 6 p.m. & 11 p.m. anchor for 11 News. She has been working in broadcasting since the age of 17. While a senior in high school, Marianne was a disc jockey and radio reporter in a small town in northeastern Colorado.

She went on to report and anchor on radio stations throughout college. She was a student at Colorado State University. By her senior year, she was a radio anchor in Denver and stringer for ABC and CBS networks and won an Associated Press Award for reporting on the trial of Eugene Tafoya. Surrounded by the national press, Marianne was given a quick lesson in the realities of big-time reporting and got the television bug. It was good-bye radio.

Following graduation, she went to Grand Junction, Colorado, KJCT television and worked as anchor and reporter and host of a weekly newsmagazine. Marianne worked at stations in Colorado Springs, Sacramento, Denver and finally Los Angeles.

During that time, she developed a knack for extended live coverage, sometimes broadcasting for seven hours straight on her "shift". Some of the major stories in her career include the Malibu flash floods, Brush firestorms throughout Southern California, the Loma Prieta earthquake in San Francisco in 1989 and the Northridge quake in 94.

She also anchored extensive coverage of the O.J. Simpson pre-trial hearings and the trial itself, and took her turn in the courtroom as a reporter.

The story she is most proud is that of Eleanor, a girl from a remote region of Russia. Marianne met her on an earlier story profiling the Children of Chernobyl. Eleanor had congenital hairy Nevis, a giant hairy mole that covered 90 percent of her body. Without treatment, it would become cancerous and she would die. Through a series of skin grafts, she would survive. But she was only two and her mother traveled with her, leaving their family at home and speaking no English.

She put her complete trust in doctors and a land she did not know. Marianne spent a year following them through the ordeal of the surgeries and accompanied them as they returned to their remote, antiquated Russian village. Her coverage raised a great deal of concern about the children like Eleanor and opened the door to a great number more being able to come to the U.S. for treatment.

While in Los Angeles, Marianne was honored by the Greater Los Angeles Press Club for live spot news reporting, The Best of the West for environmental reporting, The Associated Press for anchoring Best Newscast and three Emmy nominations.