Katie Couric's Father Dies

Katie Couric's father John, 90, has died after a battle with Parkinson's disease. 

The journalist confirmed the death in a tweet on Thursday: "Thank you to all the kind people expressing their sympathy to my family. The loss is profound and I am grateful for your support."

Couric had addressed her father's ailing health several times on Twitter in recent months. On May 24 she wrote: "My dad is coming home today from the hospital. Still very worried about him...thanks for the inqueries and good wishes!" This was followed on May 26 with the following message: "Still sick as dog. My dad is having a rough nite. So grateful for my brother...v tough time."

Couric's father was a former journalist who reported from the southern U.S. and Washington, DC in the 1940s and 1950s before becoming a public relations professional, according to an obituary in the Washington Post. The elder Couric told the Post in 1991 that he supported Katie's decision to go into broadcast journalism: "I encouraged her to go into broadcasting because I thought it was more promising than print, having been in print myself."

ABC announced earlier this month that Couric -- the former anchor for "CBS Evening News" and a former co-host at NBC's "Today" -- had signed a multi-year, multi-platform agreement with the company to host and produce her own nationally syndicated talk show and contribute to various ABC News programs.