Maine TV legend dead at 74

By Ted Cohen/Patch.com

One of Maine's most accomplished TV newscasters has died.

Neila Smith, 74, who battled cancer for many years, owned the news ratings as a WCSH-TV anchor in the mid-1980s.

Arguably no one was more comfortable in front of a live camera than Neila Smith.

She worked in Maine's largest city for WCSH, WMTW and Fox. She also previously did some time at the networks.

Smith moved with her family as a youngster to Andover from her native New Jersey. She later attended Glen Cove Christian School near Rockland (1964-65), Gould Academy in Bethel (1964-67) and then Boston University, where she got her communications degree in 1972.

When Smith teamed up with Richard Rose as co-anchors at WCSH they stole the show, achieving ratings WGME could only dream about.

"Both performed above market," recalls Jim Sanville, former TV columnist for the Portland Press Herald, the state's largest daily.

Known by most in Maine as Smith, she later changed her name to Rockwood following her marriage.