TUCSON, Ariz. — A news station in southern Arizona is mourning the loss of one of its anchors.
KOLD 13 News has announced that Ana Orsini died unexpectedly last week from a brain aneurysm. She was 28.
The broadcast journalist joined the station in June 2023.
"Ana’s friends and coworkers remember her as someone with bottomless empathy who always stood up for 'the little guy,'" KOLD wrote in a statement.
Orsini was remembered for her passion for helping rescue animals and being a kind mentor to her younger coworkers.
According to her station biography, Orsini briefly attended the University of Arizona before graduating from Texas A&M in 2018.
Orsini's colleagues recently wore pink during a special broadcast in honor of Orsini.
"Ana was not only beautiful, talented, and hilarious, but she was unlike anyone I’ve ever met. To know Ana was to LOVE her. She made everyone around her feel so special, heard and understood," Carsyn Currier, another KOLD anchor, wrote in a tribute for Orsini.
What is the Valley?:
“The Valley” is what locals call the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. It is considered the largest metropolitan area in the Southwest.
The Valley is made up of various major cities other than Phoenix, including:
- Mesa
- Chandler
- Scottsdale
- Tempe
- Glendale
- Surprise
- Peoria
- Gilbert
- El Mirage
- Avondale
- Litchfield Park
- Goodyear
- Buckeye
Whether a city is in the “East Valley” or “West Valley” depends on where it is in relation to Phoenix.
The cities of the Valley have a combined population of 4,845,832 people, according to the 2020 United States Census. This makes it the 11th largest metropolitan area in the country right behind the Boston and Atlanta areas.
How big is Maricopa County?
Maricopa County is the United States’ 4th largest county in terms of population with 4,485,414 people, according to the 2020 Census.
The county contains around 63% of Arizona’s population and is 9,224 square miles. That makes the county larger than seven U.S. states (Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, Massachusetts and New Hampshire).
One of the largest park systems in the nation is also located in Maricopa County. The county has an estimated 120,000 acres of open space parks that includes hundreds of miles of trails, nature centers and campgrounds.
The county’s seat is located in Phoenix, which is also the state capital and the census-designated 5th most populous city in the United States.
The county was named after the Maricopa, or Piipaash, Native American Tribe.
