Jacobson is the daughter of William G. and Dawn Salatich. She is of serbian descent In 1965 she graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a degree in English. That same year she married Army officer William D. Jacobson. During her husband's military career, Jacobson held a civilian job in Thailand. The Jacobsons divorced in 1973.
Career
William Jacobson's military career ended in 1969 and the couple moved to Boston. She wanted to go into journalism, but was unable to find work inthe field. She eventually got an interview with independent station WKBG, but was not hired. However, she was later chosen to be the station's public affairs director. She moved to WBZ-TV as an off-camera producer after WKBG eliminated its public affairs division. On March 19, 1972, Jacobson joined newly-formed WCVB-TV as a reporter. There she met news anchor Chet Curtis, whom she married in May 1975. In 1976 she became the first female anchor of a Boston evening newscast in when she began co-anchoring WCVB's 6 p.m. newscasts. In 1978 she began anchoring the 11 p.m. newscasts with Tom Ellis. In 1982 she and Curtis began a 17-year pairing as co-anchors of the station's 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts. During her tenure at WCVB, Jacobson covered the Boston Pops Orchestra's annual Fourth of July concert, Elizabeth II, Nelson Mandela, and Pope John Paul II's visits to Boston, the Blizzard of '78, the presidential campaigns of Massachusetts' Michael Dukakis and John Kerry, the September 11 attacks, and the Boston Red Sox2004 World Series victory. Her 1990 interview with Democratic gubernatorial nominee John Silber became notable after Silber's outburst when Jacobson asked him to describe his weaknesses. Silber's lead in the polls vanished after the interview and he lost the race to William Weld. On December 14, 1999, Jacobson and Curtis announced that they were divorcing. WCVB split up the Curtis/Jacobson pairing in July 2000. Curtis was moved to Sunday's 11 p.m. newscast and street reporting and soon departed WCVB for NECN. Jacobson scaled back her work. She anchored the 6 p.m. newscasts solo until March 2007, when she was joined by Ed Harding. Curtis and Jacobson's divorce was finalized in 2001. On July 10, 2007, Jacobson announced that she would leave WCVB-TV. Her last newscast was on July 18, 2007.
