After 35 years of telling South Florida’s stories, Liz Quirantes is preparing to tell her own final one. The longtime CBS12 anchor announced this week that she is retiring from the West Palm Beach station, ending a run that began when she walked in as a weekend reporter in 1991 and never left.

Quirantes, 60, will sign off for the last time on May 29, 2026, closing a chapter that saw her rise from the field to anchor four nightly newscasts — the 5 p.m., 5:30 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. broadcasts — and become what CBS12 has called “one of the defining voices of the station.”

The announcement, first reported by WPEC on April 27, lands at a turbulent moment for CBS News, where wave after wave of departures and layoffs have reshaped the network in recent months.

From Weekend Reporter to Local Legend

Quirantes never expected the job to last. CBS12 was her second job out of college — her first was at a cable news station in Miami — and she and her husband held onto their home there, believing she would soon return.

“I didn’t even sell our home in Miami because we intended to go back to Miami and I would apply to a broadcast station there,” she told CBS12.

Instead, she stayed. Through hurricanes, elections and the September 11 attacks, Quirantes covered the stories that defined a generation of South Florida viewers. Just a year into the job, she filed reports from Homestead in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in August 1992 — the first of many catastrophic storms she would chronicle.

Her reporting earned two Suncoast Regional Emmy Awards: one for her coverage of the Parkland school shooting in 2018, and another for her on-the-ground reporting in the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian’s devastation in 2019.

A Family Pulling Her West

The decision to step away, Quirantes said, came down to family. Her two adult children have settled in Oklahoma, and the prospect of grandchildren tipped the balance.

“What really solidified my decision was when my children started talking about starting their own families. That’s kind of like, OK, they’re not coming back to Florida,” she said. “They’re in Oklahoma, and they’re doing very well, so mom and dad need to go there.”

She and her husband plan to relocate after her final broadcast, leaving behind the state where she built a career, raised a family, and became a fixture in living rooms from West Palm Beach to Mangonia Park.

In her remarks to viewers, Quirantes reflected on the legacy she hopes to leave behind. She told The Daily Beast she wants viewers to remember her as “a devoted mom, a devoted wife, a good Christian, and an excellent journalist.”

Departure Amid CBS Upheaval

Quirantes’ exit, though driven by personal reasons, comes during one of the most volatile stretches in CBS News history. Since Bari Weiss took over as editor-in-chief in October 2025, the network has undergone sweeping rounds of layoffs and restructuring across its news division.

The Paramount Global and Skydance Media merger, completed in August 2025, triggered the financial squeeze, prompting buyouts, departures and high-profile resignations. CBS Evening News co-anchors Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson both departed in December 2025 amid the overhaul, replaced by former CBS Mornings host Tony Dokoupil. CBS Mornings host Gayle King reportedly accepted a substantial pay cut during contract negotiations, according to industry reporting.

Against that backdrop, Quirantes’ departure adds another familiar face to a growing list. Unlike many of her network counterparts, however, she made clear her exit was not the result of a buyout or a forced restructuring — it was her choice, dictated by where her family is heading next.

A Goodbye Decades in the Making

For viewers who grew up watching Quirantes anchor the evening and late newscasts, the news has hit hard. Comments flooded social media within hours of the announcement, with longtime fans calling her “a true local legend” and lamenting that the broadcasts “won’t be the same without her.”

Quirantes acknowledged the difficulty of leaving the community she has covered for more than three decades.

“It’s going to be hard to say goodbye to the viewers, to the staff, and to my life here. I’m going to miss this,” she said.

Her final newscast on May 29 will close out a career that spanned the analog-to-digital transformation of local television, the rise and fall of cable news cycles, and the consolidation pressures now reshaping the parent network. She leaves behind a station where she anchored four nightly broadcasts and a viewership that, by all accounts, considered her family.

Where her replacement at the desk will come from remains unclear. What is certain is that after May 29, the voice South Florida has trusted for 35 years will be reporting from a quieter beat — one with grandchildren, an Oklahoma sky, and no deadline at 11 p.m.