When Kris Pickel opened the door to her Avon Lake home, you got the feeling you were going to talk with a typical mom who was in the middle of her weekly routine rather than a celebrity. While the award-winning journalist at WKYC Channel 3 shows us her strength as a reporter on television, the mom of two boys also demonstrates the importance of family life.
Pickel, born in Sacramento, Calif., came to town two years ago with her family to fill the evening news co-anchor spot. This undertaking wasn’t easy. Leaving Sacramento for Cleveland left close family members behind. However, to Pickel and her husband, Carl Lemon, this was the best move they could have made.
Early Beginnings
Pickel didn’t set out to be a news anchor. In fact, she says it was never the goal and, at first, she really didn’t know what she wanted to do.
“I thought I would go into politics or business or something,” she says. But after interning at a Sacramento news station as an editor for the various newscasts, she was drawn into the reporter’s life.
“When I got into the station, I fell in love with the news,” she says. “I was fascinated by the whole thing, plus I was shy. The reporters were very nice and eventually I would help them with things.” She was often asked to go out into the community to help cover stories. “It was amazing to me how people would open up, and you get to share these moments in people’s lives.”
She landed her first job as a weekend anchor and producer in Grand Junction, Colo., and then moved on to another anchor position in Reno, Nev. Little did she know, that’s where she would meet her future husband.
“He is one of the very few people who I liked the moment I met him,” Pickel says.
The two, however, didn’t start out as a couple. They began their relationship as friends. Lemon was a videographer at the news station and it wasn’t until after he moved away and they were still in contact, that it dawned on him — they were meant for each other.
They were married in 1999 after a three-year engagement.
“We definitely see things the same way,” Lemon says. “Our sense of humor is on the same track.”
Professionally, he says they both had that same drive to become better at their crafts, and both wanted to tell stories but weren’t as concerned with the perks of being in front of the camera.
The Move
No matter what career parents are in, it’s not always easy to decide on how to raise a family. In the news business, it can be especially difficult, but Pickel says she and Lemon worked together.
“The first five years were the easiest, when they weren’t in school,” she says of her two sons, Clark, now 11, and Bruce, 8. The family was in Tucson, Ariz., where Pickel was a main television anchor.
“I took as much time off as I could,” she says. “It’s always been that we prioritize. I think we had it so much luckier. Carl is just the world’s greatest partner and he takes on so much. Every decision we’ve made since the boys were born is (based on) ‘How does this impact the family?’ There are things we’ve wanted to do, but we don’t.”
While in Tucson, Pickel and her family decided to move again, this time they were going back home to Sacramento.
Being closer to her parents and relatives was a perk, but after six years as an anchor in the city where she was raised, her family was feeling the effects of her busy schedule.
“It was six years of not having any days off together,” she says. “For a while, when one of us would take a day off, you’d think it was Christmas. The kids would run around the house (yelling) ‘family day, family day!’ It was not the way to be. We were like single parents.”
Pickel felt like it was her time to leave the station in Sacramento.
“It was for the sake of being together as a family,” she says about her decision to move. “I tried in Sacramento to get shifts that would allow more family time. This was one of those life lessons; (we told the boys) that we have to leave Sacramento because Mom needed to be in control of her own life.”
The next stop in the family’s journey was Cleveland.
Exploring Northeast Ohio
“Living on the West Coast my entire life, I never considered Ohio,” Lemon says. “Immediately after moving here, the perks started flowing — excellent part of the country, cost of living is great, tons of things to do.”
“If we were going to move to another place, I wanted (the boys) to embrace it or enjoy it,” Pickel says. “We do an adventure every weekend or try to. Go someplace or do something that we never had experienced before. We never run out of things to do.”
The family explores the region, especially enjoying the nature amenities the area has to offer, such as going to the local park systems and spending time at Lake Erie.
“(The boys) like looking for fossils,” Pickel says. “They also do volunteer work with me, like the food bank or picking up garbage at the Metroparks.”
The family also likes to take visiting relatives on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, and the boys are members of the Cleveland Natural History Museum.
“We enjoy the family outings,” Pickel says. “I think they appreciate it more since I am gone five nights a week. It’s those two days — this is family time, let’s make the most of it. We are very lucky that we raised little people who we like to be around.”
As Northeast Ohioans, many of us don’t really appreciate the weather, especially the snow. For the Pickel and Lemon family, the changing seasons are something of a wonder.
“We love the fact that we can open the back door and build a snowman or have a snowball fight,” Pickel says.
Pickel also notes her boys can have a sense of independence here in Ohio compared to California.
The Boys
“I am Batman,” says Bruce in a deep voice. He, incidentally, was named after the comic book superhero. His brother Clark, well, you can likely guess who he was named after.
In fact, when Pickel was asked if the boys display any of their namesake’s attributes she said their names are very appropriate.
“Clark is the ultimate Boy Scout when it comes to his personality, always wanting to help people. You will not find someone sweeter or nicer than Clark,” she says. “Bruce has this great sense of humor and he is more apt to bend the rules, but to make you laugh more than anything.”
Lemon, who is a comic book collector and fanatic (his office’s décor was very telling of his passion for all things superheroes), along with Pickel, brings creativity and fun, which seems to influence the boys in great ways. In fact, the family has had an ongoing video project since the boys were young.
Lemon wanted to learn a new program, at the time, called Adobe After Effects, and decided to involve the family in a short film production.
“The only way to really learn it is to have a project,” he says.
The first movie trailer was called “Sour Wars,” somewhat of a spoof of the 1977 blockbuster film “Star Wars,” with each family member having his or her role.
Lemon creates the scripts for their movies using moments from their day-to-day lives. The films, which are just for the family, are really like memories they shared together, and while they have a good time, there’s also a lesson in making these films.
“It teaches the boys a work ethic,” Lemon says. “Making these movies takes work.”
It also takes time, which both sons and Dad seem to really enjoy.
“The three of them are always together,” Pickel says. “I try to convince the boys to have play dates, but they want to be with Dad, because he is the most fun person in the world.”
