Cavuto: Remembering Brenda Buttner

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Cavuto: Remembering Brenda Buttner

'Bulls & Bears' host dies at age 55

I have some very sad news to share with you today.

Our Brenda Buttner has passed away. Many of you know her as the unflappable host of 'Bulls & Bears'... she was much more.

Allow me now to tell you how much more.
She was a Rhodes Scholar, but she'd never mention it.

Near the top of her Harvard class, but she'd never say it.

You couldn't help but see the IQ, Brenda just preferred showing you her EQ.

All that smarts stuff is in her files, but the more important things filled her heart.

Like motorcycles. She loved them,

Even briefly quit her astonishing broadcast career to edit a motorcycle magazine because she thought it would be fun.

We used to joke Brenda had a different bucket list in life. It's when you saw hers; you realized maybe your bucket list was the odd one because Brenda's captured what really mattered in life.

Like how much she loved animals,

And couldn't help re-tweeting how delighted she was when Ringling Brothers announced it was shutting down.

To how much she loved her incredible daughters,

And the pride she took seeing her youngest vote for the first time last fall.

Little things in life that defined the big things in Brenda's life.

A woman who would gloss over talking to financial and political kingpins as just another day at the office.

Far more eager to share her plans for a girls' night out with her daughters after that day at the office.

No bravado, just brave. Incredibly brave.

You'd never know what she was going through, just that in her sickest moments battling an un-relenting cancer, there was Brenda cheering you on.

Whether it was staffers', whose birthdays she'd never miss
Or sick colleagues to whom she was always reaching out.

Including me checking in after my heart surgery and urging me to be strong,
As she carried a far greater life and death burden, but never said a word.

She took stock of life much more than any stock in life. It's what separated her from everyone else in this business. Not just dollars, Brenda had depth.

It seems fitting that Brenda was among the first to put a kind female face to this once staid old male bastion of business.

It was she who first invited all into this once off-putting world with something called 'The Money Club.'

She once told the Sun Sentinel being a woman gave her an edge.
'Women are not afraid to simply admit they don't know about something, which men rarely do. So women realize there is no such thing as a stupid question when it comes to understanding an investment.'

Thing is Brenda didn't ask stupid questions. She asked real questions and woe to the guest who wasn't ready for them.

Brenda kept score without ever having to settle scores. Everyone deferred to her, everyone listened to her, maybe because everyone respected her, a woman whose only bias was the clock and whose only goal was giving equal time to all.

A critic once said of Brenda: she does panel shows right because she gets the fact it's about treating your audience right.
She had their back and she was forever reaching out to remind them Fox did too, even sick at home, cheerfully promoting the shows viewers should catch at home.

Let it be known that Brenda Buttner made us want to watch a business show with heart.

Her heart. Her spirit. She democratized dollars and just made sense.

Business journalism would never be the same.

I just don't know, now that she is gone whether we'll ever be.

Brenda Buttner gone way too soon at 55.

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