ATLANTA -- Steen Miles, a former State Senator and noted journalist with an extended career at 11Alive News died on Wednesday after a long battle with lung cancer.
TheHistoryMakers.com reports that, after a career in journalism taking her from South Bend, Ind. to Cincinnati and then Chicago, Miles' journalistic endeavors brought her to Atlanta as the state broadcast editor for United Press International in Atlanta where she served from 1980 to 1984.
Soon after her time there, she joined WXIA-TV and served in various capacities - many behind the scenes - at the station until 1999. She took over as chief media relations officer for MARTA in 2001.
11Alive Chief Meteorologist Chris Holcomb remembered his time with her fondly.
"I admired Steen's tenacity as a trailblazer in this business," he said. "She was always able to get the story she was pursuing."
He also thanked her for "accepting this young weather man into this newsroom" 25 years before.
For 11Alive's Valerie Hoff, Miles made a lasting impression when she first started working in Atlanta.
"If you've worked in media or politics in Atlanta, you probably knew Steen Miles," she said. "She was so kind to me back when I was a beginner in Atlanta TV news."
Miles' aspirations also saw her elected to public office in 2005 when she was elected state senator for District 43.
"I admired her being a risk-taker and leaving TV to run for public office," Hoff said.
Hoff added that Miles brought a similar determination and openness to her battle with cancer.
"She fought cancer with humor, optimism and determination and shared her battle on Facebook up until very recently," Hoff said. "Steen's death is a shock and a loss. It's also a reminder that those who have lost their lives to cancer didn't fight any less hard than the rest of us who have recovered from it - we simply got lucky."
In addition to numerous honors over the years, a Georgia Senate Resolution was filed on Tuesday to honor her time in journalism and local politics by District 2 Senator Lester Jackson.
