Who is Nancy Guthrie? Inside the life of ‘Today’ host Savannah Guthrie’s mother

Nancy Guthrie (née Long) grew up in Fort Wright, Kentucky, a small Cincinnati suburb.

She attended Catholic, all-girls elementary and high schools, and went on to enroll at the University of Kentucky.

While there, she worked with the student-run newspaper, the Kentucky Kernel, as a society editor and staff member. She covered Greek life for the publication, her former editor told local Kentucky outlet WKYT.

Nancy Guthrie met her future husband, Charles Guthrie, on a blind date at a basketball game at the University of Kentucky.

On the “Today” show in 2017, Savannah Guthrie said of their meeting, “The thing I always remember is that my mom said my dad walked up to the door of her sorority, and she looked at him and said, ‘That’s the man I’m going to marry!'”

Together, Nancy and Charles, who was an engineer, had three children: Annie, Camron, and Savannah.

The couple were living in Melbourne, Australia — where they had moved for Charles’ work — when their youngest child, Savannah, was born in 1971.

Savannah Guthrie has often spoken about growing up in a tight-knit family where faith played a central role.

Her family spent every Sunday at the local Baptist church for Sunday school, morning service, choir practice, and night service.

“We liked to say that God was the sixth member of the Guthrie family,” she wrote in a blog post.

The family moved back to Arizona when Savannah was 2 years old, and her mother has lived in the area since.

When Savannah was 16, Charles Guthrie died of a heart attack while working in Mexico.

After her husband’s death, Nancy Guthrie stepped up as the “rock” who held the family together, her daughter has said.

Nancy Guthrie returned to work so her children could attend college, taking a public relations job at the University of Arizona so Savannah and Annie could attend tuition-free, the anchor told The Hollywood Reporter in 2016.

Until then, Nancy Guthrie had raised the family full-time.

It was Nancy who encouraged her daughter to study journalism in college, which was the beginning of Savannah Guthrie’s career.

In 1993, Savannah Guthrie earned a degree in journalism from the University of Arizona, graduating cum laude.

After earning a law degree, she returned to journalism, eventually becoming a co-anchor on “Today” in 2012.

While Nancy Guthrie has largely maintained a private life, she has occasionally stepped into the spotlight in support of her daughter, appearing publicly with her, including on the “Today” show.

The appearances offered viewers a rare glimpse of the family behind the longtime morning show anchor.

Friends and members of her Tucson community have described her as a consistent presence, including through her church involvement.

Former actor and KVOA reporter Sally Shamrell said the Guthries “are a very revered family in Tucson,” as reported by CBS News.

On February 1, Nancy Guthrie was reported missing from her Tucson, Arizona, home after failing to show up for church services at a family member’s home.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI immediately began a multi-agency search for the 84-year-old, treating the disappearance as a criminal case after finding evidence at her residence that they said suggested foul play.

On Wednesday, February 4, Savannah and her two siblings released a video on social media pleading with Nancy’s potential kidnappers and asking for proof of life and information about her well-being.

“She is 84 years old. Her health, her heart is fragile,” Savannah Guthrie read in the video. “She lives in constant pain. She is without any medicine. She needs it to survive. She needs it not to suffer.”

“The FBI is doing everything in our power to bring Nancy Guthrie home to her family,” said Jon Edwards, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s office in Tucson, at a press conference on Tuesday, February 5.

On Tuesday, February 10, the FBI released recovered security camera footage showing a masked figure who appeared to be tampering with a doorbell camera outside Nancy Guthrie’s home.