Broadcast Journalist Leroy Sievers, 53

Leroy Sievers, 53, a former executive producer for ABC's "Nightline" news program, was most remembered in recent years for chronicling his struggle with brain cancer in a popular online diary for National Public Radio.

Mr. Sievers, who died of the tumor Aug. 15 at his home in Potomac, lured tens of thousands of listeners and Web viewers into his life with his NPR blog, "My Cancer," and radio commentaries updating his condition.

Balancing wit and pathos, he drew enthusiastic support from cancer survivors, including champion cyclist Lance Armstrong, and created a large virtual community of those curious to understand how he and others faced a terminal diagnosis.

One of Mr. Sievers's most vulnerable moments came in March, when his 83-year-old mother died of the same cancer after blaming herself for passing on the disease.

He found a vivid way to express their relationship.

"When I was young," he wrote, "I had a toy fire truck that actually sprayed water. She would make shoebox houses, set them on fire in the driveway, and let me put them out.

"Some 40 years later, I wrote about that in the 'Nightline' daily e-mail. She called me, worried that people might think she was a bad mother for letting me play with fire."

Leroy Edward Sievers was born June 16, 1955, in Pasadena, Calif., and raised in San Marino, Calif.

He was a political science graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and began his broadcasting career as a news reader for the campus radio station.

After an early stint at an Oakland, Calif., television station, he joined CBS News in 1982 and subsequently was Los Angeles bureau chief. Later, as a Miami-based producer for the network, he covered U.S.-sponsored wars in Central America and the space shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986. He also was among the first to enter Kuwait City during the Persian Gulf War.

He joined "Nightline" in 1991 and was the program's executive producer -- chief manager -- from 2000 to 2004. During his 13-year association with the show, he did hidden-camera exposés, covered the trial of Cambodian dictator Pol Pot for crimes against humanity and explored race relations in America.

With Ted Koppel, he accompanied the 3rd Infantry Division as it fought its way from Kuwait to Baghdad after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.