Residents of Reno have watched Nevada Alpha Wendy Wyness Damonte on their TV screens for nearly two decades. As a news anchor for the local CBS affiliate, Wendy is a celebrity in the town affectionately known as “The Biggest Little City in the World.”

The city sits in a high desert at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, its history built on gold and silver mining. Though visions of Vegas-esque slot machines and neon marquees come to mind, the city actually compares to a quiet Midwestern town. Everybody knows everybody else, old friends run into each other every month at community events and nearly everyone graduated from the University of Nevada, its campus sitting steps away from the center of downtown.

Wendy grew up outside of San Francisco and came to Reno to attend the University of Nevada, following in the footsteps of her father and brother. She swam in college, joined Pi Phi along the way and graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism in 1994. She never imagined she would put down roots in Reno. But upon returning to the Bay Area after graduation, Wendy realized she missed the city. “I wanted to come back here,” she said. “So I called the News Director at KTVN Channel 2 and said, ‘I will do anything’ and she said ‘Ok, great, I need a secretary’ and I said ‘I’ll take it.’ I worked my way up and I’ve been the main news anchor since 2000.”

Wendy’s career isn’t the only thing that helped make Reno her home. “I fell in love,” she said. (Her husband is a Reno native and member of the well-known Damonte Ranch family). “Otherwise, I swear to you, I would be in New York City. I swear I would have made it!” she said. You can tell from the grin on her face that she’s teasing. Because not only did she fall in love with her husband, “But I also fell in love with Reno,” Wendy said. “I have never regretted that a day in my life. Ever.”