Longtime Detroit TV personality Marilyn Turner dies at 93

Marilyn Turner, a former Detroit weathercaster who went on to host two popular local talk shows with her husband, John Kelly, has died. She was 93.

WXYZ -TV (Channel 7), where Turner worked for more than two decades, reported Wednesday evening that Turner's family had confirmed her death. Neither the date nor cause was revealed.

Turner grew up in Ontario and became a weathercaster on Detroit's WJBK-TV (Channel 2) in 1957, according to the Detroit Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Detroit.

WXYZ hired Turner in 1973, a year after it hired John Kelly away from WJBK to co-anchor the evening news with Bill Bonds.

Turner and Kelly married in December 1974.

Together, they hosted WXYZ's "Kelly & Co." from the 1977 to 1995. In front of a live audience, they interviewed celebrities and newsmakers (Kirk Douglas, Alyssa Milano, Donny Osmond, former President Jimmy Carter). They made a guest appearance on the soap opera, "General Hospital." For four years, in the 1980s, they also hosted another talk show, "Good Afternoon, Detroit."

"Turner and her husband, John Kelly, went from news to a prototype of what the 'Regis and Kathy' show turned out to be nationally. During 'Kelly & Company's' long run on Channel 7, they were the first stop for touring authors and entertainers and mixed in serious psych advice and sometimes just yucking it up," said John Smyntek, who as former Free Press entertainment editor covered Turner and Kelly through their heyday.

Kelly died in 2016. He was 88.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Marilyn Turner, longtime Detroit TV personality, dies at 93