too many kids and adults endure and ignore concussions. >> we're interrupting briefly to try to keep you abreast of the events happening locally in our area today, where the pentagon was one of the subjects of teis

>> it's been 150 years now since the first military burial here at the arlington national cemetery. >> even better. >> your hair and hers. >> thank you. >> whoa. >> i had hair and she had a lot more. >> darker too. ♪ ♪ when jim vance died last weekend, we lost someone very special to us. we know you lost someone important to you, too, and that's why we wanted to bring you some of his favorite moments and reflect on some of yours as well. vance loved washington, but he was born and raised in philadelphia, and part of him would always be a philly boy, but washington had been his home for 48 years. along the way, he had a family. he raised three children, who made him very proud. he put down roots here and got involved in

events as he could. i can't tell you how many people have told me that he spoke at their graduation or their kids' graduation. in our newsroom, vance was our anchorman, both on the air and off the air. so often he was the last word on what we should cover and how we should cover it. he could handle breaking news as smoothly as he could deliver one of his commentaries. he used to be a high school english teacher, so good, clear writing and especially good grammar were important to him, and everyone here knew it. he shared his time and experience as a mentor to hundreds of young journalists, and he was also a very good friend, loyal and always willing to listen. vance didn't start out as an anchorman, though. when he first arrived at nbc 4 in 1969, he was a reporter in the field every day. we found some old video of him when he was just getting started. check it o

the race for one of the at-large seats in the recent school board election is over. the board today declared charles the winner by a mere 20 votes over his opponent thomas curtis. curtis still has some recourse, though, because he can -- this is it again. >> vance did a few more takes before he got that stand-up just the way he wanted it. here's a clip of vance asking questions that would later be inserted into one of his stories. >> what recourse does curtis have now? i understand in the run-off election, there's going to be something different. just what changes do you have in mind? mm-hmm. mmm. i'll be darned. >> we call those cutaways. it's a little like acting. can you tell that vance didn't like doing them? you can see how his appearance s

got to love that 'fro, but he always had style, so much style, and a voice that you could never forget. it was only a few years after he started here that vance went from interviewing people who ran washington to people who ran the country. >> jim vance with nbc 4 washington. >> yeah, i know this guy. how are you, sir? >> pleasure. >> good to see you. >> when you're around washington as long as vance has been, you're going to interview a lot of people, and in vance's case, some of those people live in the white house. here's a shot of him meeting president reagan for the first time, and here he is with the president and mrs. bush. but that's not the first time vance met the first president bush. they actually went fishing together. here's what vance said about their excursion back then. >> you don't see much of us actually fishing because the press pool boat couldn't get close enough. i was supposed to take pictures. quite frankly, i never shot a frame because when one is fishing with the

shooting pictures when there's fish to be caught. and there were fish to be caught. and we caught them. i had the time of my life. the president said he had a good time too, and i think he meant it. >> vance has also talked with both president and mrs. obama. some of his questions were serious conversation. others took a lighter turn. >> just a couple of miles from here, thousands of people, a lot of them black men, who are in another struggle for their lives, for dignity, don't have a job, can't find a job, don't have skill sets to even get one and keep one if educational background -- if they could. what do you tell those people? >> vance has also covered a whole lot of presidential inaugurations in his time. here i was with him for the last seven, and those are some of my best memories of our years together. >> it is still a day to be all pumped up. we heard the speeches at the presidential lunch

today. and it was wonderful to hear that level of collegiality from all of the participants in that, if only it could last for a while. but for today, it was a wonderful -- >> we're all on the same team together today. >> this is the seventh inauguration that doreen and i have covered together. and in every single one of them, may i say we are frozen our toes off. >> vance always loved to get out of the studio and meet people. so many of you have told us stories about running into him on the streets or at a deli and how gracious he was. it's easy to find people who want to talk about what jim vance meant to them. >> he was really special. you know, it's hard to explain. when people come along in your life like that, that give you so much, it's hard to explain. >> he was a real person. he didn't show like he was on tv andt

attitude. he was a down to earth -- he was real. >> mr. vance literally is my childhood and my adulthood and any news that has ever occurred pretty much got from him. >> there was a sense that he really understood the little guy, whoever it was, and sometimes on tv people are talking from a mountain top, but with jim, you felt like something was looking you in the eye and had been where you were. >> we've got so much more to share, including how people who worked with vance every day are remembering him. ♪ >> nice to see you. they wanted to meet him. i've been watching you for a hundred years. and vance would stop and talk to everybody. i mean, he was that kind of guy. he would say, thank you for saying hello. that was his way of saying i really appreciate the fact that you're watching. you know, keep watching. he was that kind of guy. he was really nice and had a

personality. i think people really liked the fact that he was friendly and had a big heart. and he will be missed. >> redskins report friday night at 8:00. friday night, 8:00. >> and guess whose birthday it is. >> it's not my birthday. >> it's not your birthday. it is somebody near and dear to us birthday. >> you know i love pineapple upside down cake. ♪ happy birthday to you happy birthday to you ♪ ♪ happy birthday to you >> there's no candles on that cake. that cake is not big enough to hold all your candles, vance. >> is that applause i hear? >> "nightly news" is next. not with tom brokaw. he retired. >> happy birthday. >> thank you, guys.

♪ for a long period of time, i really considered myself a mistake. >> what do you mean you considered yourself a mistake? >> my self-esteem has always been so incredibly low that for a long period of time, i thought that my existence on this e

mistake. >> jim vance always lifted us up when there was something to celebrate, but he didn't hold back about the things that weren't right in the world and in his world. a few years ago, vance shared some of those tough times with me in an interview. it was his idea to go public with his own struggle with depression. pretty brave thing for such an apparently strong man to do, but he knew that his story might help someone else. >> if i can be a little glimmer of light for one person just by virtue of, you know, acknowledging that i'm all screwed up but i'm cool with it now, then, you know, i'd be very happy with that. i'll be eternally grateful for that. and i mean that sincerely. that's no way to

of masks anymore? >> i don't know where that bag is. i'm glad it's lost. i have no idea where that thing is. most of all, i know joy. there's a whole bunch of days now where i know joy. and i'm cool with that. from that, all doors are open. there are no closed doors. because i'm not afraid of what might be behind those doors. because i go into them fortified with a sense of joy and love. i know joy, i know love. >> in fact, we heard from so many people this week, a lot of them took something away from that interview. >> he was human too, just like we are. if somebody else had a problem, he had some problems. and he dealt

i'm just glad i got to see him every day. >> me too. vance touched a lot of people throughout his life, from his days as a teacher to recent years, when he was a mentor for so many young staffers who walked through the doors of nbc 4. our long-time friend pat collins talked to a few of our colleagues about the profound influence vance had on them. >> on vance, april williams, nbc 4 producer, ten years. >> i mean, the thing with vance is it was no bs, right. especially as a black woman, as a black journalist, you know, he'll pull you aside and be like, look, you don't have it together today, you need to pull it up and act right, you know? and he had no cut cards and would tell you the way it was. i appreciated that. >> on vance, edie german,

operations manager. . >> i was going through a dark period in my life. i was getting a divorce. and i was having one of these emotional moments and jim pulled me into his office and said to me, sister, get it together. sit down, cry it out, get it together. we all have ups and downs, but you're a champion. i expect you to be a champion and continue to be so. and that was something that helped me to put things in perspective. >> on vance, perkins brassard, nbc 4 editor, 19 years. >> i was struggling with whether or not i wanted to continue in this business, but he said to me -- he said, you know, there's not very many of us in this business, meaning african-american men. he said, you know, there's not very many of you,ea

has the skill and the craft that i have and have developed over the years. he said -- and -- i wasn't supposed to do this, but he said he was proud of my progress, that he's watched me from afar for many, many years, and he remembered me as this young black kid that just came into the newsroom and, you know, just fit in and did what i had to do to get this far. and he just said to me, like, you've come way too far to turn back. >> vance would often say that he still got nervous just before our newscasts were about to begin. he did a pretty good job of concealing that in the recent past, from my perspective. but back when he was just learning how to be an anchorman, he wen t

for advice. >> david brinkley was the guy who had a large part in making me care about what was happening in the world. i sat down with him at the table and asked -- i said, you know, i got to ask you asking, man, because you've been doing this for a long time and i've been watching you. i am terrified every single time i go on the air. and i'm a veteran now. i've been doing this for two years. and i have this feeling that i should be breaking out in hives every time the light goes on, on the camera. and i want to know how long do i have to go before i can get over this and what should i expect to happen. brinkley is sitting there in that brinkley-like fashion he talked, and, well, jim, i'll tell you. the day comes when you don't get a butterfly in your belly when you go on the air, that's the day to get out

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my first recollection, when i first came here, is every friday this guy would come around, this bald-headed dude woman could around, tiny bags of eggs. i'm thinking, what the hell is going on here? he sold eggs. >> are you kidding?

i didn't need a lawyer. i didn't need an accountant. you bought those eggs. >> i bought them every friday. >> buck a dozen. >> better than safeway. >> that's why they came here. >> people ask me what i'll remember most about vance. so many things, but most of all his sense of fun. he loved a good story and a good laugh. boy, did we have so much fun over the years. here's one of my favorite pictures of the two of us. we're at a promo shoot not too long ago in columbia heights. those shoots are just ridiculous. instead of covering the news, we stand there for hours with cameras and lights and boom mikes and makeup artists and equipment trucks swarming all around us while a crowd gathers to see what's happening and we're just trapped there. we feel so silly doing those things. and this picture reminds me how vance could make something like that just hilarious. some of the times we laughed the most with our old fds

ryan, arch campbell, and george michael. >> be a nice, caring individual. when did this change come over you? >> george is on a roll. >> not me, baby. doreen started this. >> tell about the sports, would you, george? >> probably be a good idea, right? >> are you glad you got me by your side? >> i love this. causes my heart to soar like the eagle, george been better do sports now, by brother. >> got out of his limousine, nobody recognized him. >> i'll bet they recognized you. >> a few of them did. >> good enough day, bob. bob? you're not going to do an update, are you? the weather couldn't be that bad. as a matter of fact, it's going to be dark tonight. we'll tell you that. bob. >> did i miss anything? >> he's back. he's here. >> we've got a lot of clouds out there. >> can you hear us out there? >> previously

the finals would put them against russia, which beat them 4-3. >> what? what did you say? let me see that. what did you say? >> so many laughs. the d.c. city council tweeted that washington has one less monument now that jim vance is gone. he was a leader among our peers in journalism too. here he is in front of colleagues from tv stations across our mid-atlantic region when he received the highest honor at the emmys, the board of governors award. >> i have had the extraordinary privilege of working for almost half a century with some absolutely marvelous professions. to them, to the board of governors, and to all of you, thank you very much. thank you. [ applause ]

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♪ a wonderful segue. because we want to take this opportunity to welcome the newest member of the news 4 team. this is doreen, doreen gentzler. take a good look. no stranger to these parts. she has roots in the city, folks still live in the city, and i'm sure your folks are real proud. mr. and mrs. gentzler, you got a right to be proud. welcome, doreen. >> that was july of 1989, 28 years ago. that was vance introducing me on my very first night on the anchor desk here. i'm not proud of that big hair-do, but imagine how thrilled i was back then and still am now to hear him predicting that i'd be around for a very long time. my heart is full of gratitude for the time i got to spend working alongside jim vance. i've learned so much from him over the years, and i'm going to miss him

so many of you have shared your vance stories with us this week. thank you for that. lovely memories. about the times you've met him on the street or at the store, the funny things he said or the really meaningful advice he shared with you, or the donations, the scholarships, and support for young people that he never told any of us about. vance was the real deal, and we won't see another like him. thank you also for reaching out to comfort us this week. we have felt the love. your cards, your flowers, your e-mails, your web posts have lifted all of us up during a sad time. we appreciate every one of them. and as we say good-bye, we want you to know that jim vance's legacy, his sense of fairness, and his integrity are written very large over every one of us here at news 4. he was our leader, and we all want to measure up to his high standards every day going

rest in peace, my friend. >> the thing about biking is it doesn't really matter where you go. it's not the destination that counts, it's the journey. >> and at the end of the day, when everybody else is going their way, you head on home, alone, with all that power under you and all the glory of god's earth all around you, loving life. ♪ ♪

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[ cheers and applause ] ♪ >> steve: from studio 6b in rockefeller center in the heart of new york city, it's "the tonight show starring jimmy fallon." tonight, join jimmy and his guests -- david spade, desus & mero,