Born in Midland, Paula McClure moved to Dallas as a young child. Her television debut came at age 11, when she began making regular appearances on a weekly WFAA children's program called Gunnysack. She graduated from Kimball High School in 1980 and began her broadcast career in Dallas working as an anchor and weather reporter for KDFW-TV (Channel 4) while studying broadcast journalism at Southern Methodist University. After graduating in the mid-1980s, she stayed with the station, hosting her own talk show, Tuning in With Paula McClure. She then left Dallas to take a job with Entertainment Tonight as a celebrity correspondent. Later, Ms. McClure became a fashion correspondent for The Home Show, a national morning show on the ABC network. Among her many affiliate jobs, she served as a co-host at Los Angeles television stations. She also appeared on several nationally syndicated shows, including Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Ms. McClure returned to Dallas in 1996 and took a morning job at WFAA as a co-host of Good Morning Texas on WFAA-TV (Channel 8) for nearly three years in the late 1990s.