Former ABC News correspondent Jim Avila dies at 69

Former ABC News senior correspondent Jim Avila has died at the age of 69 after battling a "long illness," the network announced on Thursday.

Avila, who worked as a correspondent on the ABC series "20/20," left ABC News in 2021 following a kidney transplant in 2020. Additional details on Avila's death were not disclosed by the network.

"From tight, breathless morning reports where every word was news, to relaxed man-on-the-street evening interviews, Avila told the whole story on merciless deadlines," the White House Correspondents Association said in 2015. "That's the sort of excellence in presidential news coverage under deadline pressure that the Merriman Smith Award is meant to honor."

Earlier in his career, Avila had other local reporting stints in California and Illinois. He later joined KNBC in Los Angeles and covered the OJ Simpson murder trial, which catapulted him to a national NBC reporting position. He joined ABC in 2004.

Speaking on Avila's time at the network's San Francisco affiliate, Macedo praised the late journalist for covering a "wide range of stories with depth and fairness."

The ABC News Live anchor added that Avila met his health challenges, including undergoing a kidney transplant from his brother, "with courage."

Others across ABC News and the media also paid tribute to Avila following his death.