Carolyn Diana Lewis, accomplished journalist

Carolyn Diana Lewis, 86, of Ocean View passed away Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018, at Greenwood Country Rest Home. She was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Sept. 8, 1931, daughter of the late John and Lillian Lewis.

Ms. Lewis grew up in Tucson, Ariz., where she graduated from the University of Arizona. She received a scholarship to study at the University of Oslo in Norway, and on her return, met and married Michael O. Berntsen, an Australian ship's officer. Ms. Lewis moved to Sydney, where she resided for 13 years, establishing a journalism career in radio, television and newspapers. After her divorce, she returned to the U.S., settling in Washington, D.C. She reported for the Washington Post and for Post-Newsweek radio and television stations as Capitol Hill correspondent. Ms. Lewis covered city riots and anti-Vietnam war protests, and later for Public Television, hearings on the impeachment of President Nixon. President Jimmy Carter appointed Ms. Lewis to the commission to investigate the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.

Ms. Lewis taught journalism at Boston University and was associate dean at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism. She authored a text, "Reporting for Television," published by Columbia Press. When Ms. Lewis retired, she moved to Ocean View, where she wrote features for the Wilmington News Journal and was later hired full time for the paper.

She is survived by her sons: Peter Berntsen and his wife Marie of Frankford, and David Berntsen and his wife Janice of Lennox Head, New South Wales, Australia; her grandchildren: Elizabeth, Michael, Kathleen, Rachel, Jessica and Rio; her great-grandchildren: Mason, Gianna, Rogan and Iris; and her brother, Avrom D. Lewis of Woodbridge, Va.

She will be greatly missed by her family and friends.

A Memorial Service will be held Saturday, Aug. 18, at 2 p.m., at Parsell Funeral Homes and Crematorium, Clarksville Chapel, 34874 Atlantic Ave., Ocean View, where friends may visit beginning at 1 p.m. Interment will be private.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions in Ms. Lewis' memory to the Salvation Army, P.O. Box 310, Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971.

Please visit Ms. Lewis' Life Memorial Webpage and sign her online guestbook at www.parsellfuneralhomes.com.