When Jeanne Keevil was a college student at the University of Oregon in the 1940s, journalism was a man’s world.
When male students who had served during World War II began returning to school as the war ended, Keevil, like the other women on the staff of the Daily Emerald, the university’s independent, student-run newspaper, turned their roles over to them, her daughter, Connie Quinley, said.
At the time, Quinley said, that was perceived to be the right thing to do. But roughly two decades after her college graduation, it would be Keevil at the helm of a newspaper.
“The best part of her career, and the longest piece of it, was for the Irvine World News,” Quinley said.
The Irvine World News, brought under the Register’s wing in 2000, was started as a community paper in 1970, a year before Irvine was incorporated as a city. Keevil was hired as its first editor in 1971, and covered the city since its Dec. 28, 1971 incorporation. She remained in that role until her retirement in 1992.
Keevil died in Portland, Oregon, on Dec. 15 at the age of 96.
During Keevil’s tenure at the Irvine World News, the city saw rapid transformation, including residential development, a push to be environmentally clean and the expansion of UC Irvine.
She was the 1989 recipient of the Orange County Press Club’s John (Sky) Dunlap Award, its highest honor presented to a journalist for their achievements in journalism and community involvement. She is also an honoree in Irvine’s “Wall of Recognition,” which honors those who have made significant contributions to the city.
Keevil would sometimes describe hardships she faced covering what was then a fledgling city, said Quinley. She would butt heads with city officials, most often men.
“She was a champion for the paper. She was a champion for good journalism,” Quinley said. “And that, coming from a woman, didn’t go over very well sometimes.”
Keevil was both “a lady and a newspaper person,” Quinley…
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