Co-Anchor of 'Fox 8 News in The Morning'

Stefani Schaefer | Biography

Former Musical Artist, Toured With Bob Hope USO Troupe

• By Reena Chikanbanjar
• Original : December 26, 2021

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Stefani Schaefer is an American television host best known for co-anchoring Fox 8 News in The Morning, alongside Wayne Dawson and Kristi Capel.

Who is Stefani Schaefer?

Before starting her anchoring career, Stefani Schaefer was a musical artist. From 1979 to 1989, she and her brother Thommie toured the country with the Bob Hope USO Troupe. They also served as the opening act for several artists and musical groups, including Barbara Mandrell, Chubby Checker, and The Oak Ridge Boys. In 1989, she received the 'Governor's Award' as an Ohio artist. The same year, she was named 'Ohio's Junior Miss/Ohio's Young Woman of the Year.' She worked as a voice and dance teacher for 12 years at her family's performing arts center in Alliance, Ohio.

In 1992, Schaefer joined FOX 8. Later, she temporarily left Fox 8 and hosted a national network show aired out of Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. She rejoined FOX 8 in Fox-affiliate WJW in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2007. The following year, she was installed into the Broadcasters Hall of Fame on 14 September 2008. She has also been named Cleveland's Favorite News Anchor since 2012.

She now co-anchors the station's morning show, Fox 8 News in The Morning, alongside Wayne Dawson and Kristi Capel. She is a Fox 8 News six-time 'Emmy Award' anchor. 

Age, Early Bio, and Education

Stefani Schaefer's birthday falls on 21 February. On 20 February 2015, Fox 8 celebrated her birthday one day before her birthday. However, her exact birth year and age are yet to be known.

A native of Alliance, Ohio, Schaefer graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas, Louisville. Later, she graduated from the University of Mount Union one semester early with a degree in journalism and communications.

Husband and Children

Schaefer married her husband Roger in 1998. They have two children together, son Race and daughter Siena.

Later, in April 2012, her husband fell 12 feet from scaffolding while fitting solar panels at a construction site and suffered a severe head injury. He was rushed to Hillcrest Hospital and then flown to Metro Health Medical Center by helicopter. Roger survived, but his brain injury resulted in his long-term and short-term memory loss. He suffered aphasia, a disorder caused by brain damage that robs the ability to put names on people and objects, and visual agnosia, an inability to recognize faces. 

Schaefer told cleveland.com in April 2013 that her husband knew his name most of the time, but he didn't even recognize himself in photographs. The doctor once asked Roger to identify Schaefer, and he told the doctor she was his mom. Schaefer says her husband not recognizing her is painful. Following her husband's tragic memory loss, Schaefer battled to control her emotions as she lived with stress, sorrow, and uncertainty.

In August 2013, she resigned guardianship of her husband, filing paperwork in Cuyahoga County probate court. She told cleveland.com that she was advised to do so for many complicated financial and legal reasons, and she did so to protect her children financially and psychologically. She further stated that guardianship would pass to Roger's side of the family. 

After seven years of her husband's accident, Schaefer took to Instagram on 27 April 2019 to share that the past seven years had been traumatic for her and her children. She wrote, "7 years ago today our lives changed in an instant. They will never - ever - be the same. Every single day we mourn this beautiful husband and father... even though he is still alive." 

She continued, "As his mother says to us all the time...sadly this is not OUR Roger. This 'letting go' but trying desperately to 'hold on' is like a Tug of War EVERY SINGLE DAY. It is heartbreaking and devastating....and tears us apart EVERY day...but especially on 27 April. We always pray to Rogers soul up in Heaven..."