Obituary: Jeanne Keevil, first editor of Irvine World News, chronicled city’s growth

Jeanne S. Keevil — a longtime Orange County journalist who chronicled the city of Irvine from its incorporation in 1971 until her retirement two decades later — died peacefully at her residence in Portland, Ore., on Dec. 15. She was 96.

A former reporter for the Globe-Herald, which combined with the Newport Harbor Pilot to become the Orange Coast Daily Pilot, she worked alongside husband Tom Keevil in the 1950s and ’60s before becoming the first editor of Irvine World News.

There, she contributed to the historical record of the rapidly growing master-planned community as the publication strove to provide fair and accurate reporting independent from the views of its owner, the Irvine Co.

Jeanne Keevil, center, with daughters Katie Essick, left, and Connie Quinley in 2020.

(Courtesy of Katie Essick)

Born on Jan. 17, 1927, in Philadelphia to Beatrice Mosher Simmonds and Edward Pierce Simmonds, on at least two occasions she had brushes with history, according to her family members.

In May 1937, her parents took her to see the wreckage of the Hindenburg in nearby New Jersey. On another occasion, she met Helen Keller, who traced the contours of her face in greeting.

At a time when newsrooms were occupied primarily by men, a young Jeanne Simmonds landed on journalism as a career after serving as the editor of her high school newspaper in Springfield, Pa., the Spri-Hian. She would tell others the profession “might be something I could succeed in.”

When she learned the University of Oregon had a journalism school, she applied and was accepted as a student in 1944. Simmonds worked as a reporter, news editor and managing editor of the Oregon Daily Emerald, whose ranks had shrunk as male students enlisted to serve in World War II, according to daughter Connie Quinley.

A 1946 article in the University of Oregon’s student-run paper announces Jeanne Simmonds as news editor.

(Courtesy of Katie Essick)

“That gave her opportunities she never would have had, had men been on the campus, but there was a dearth of men because they were off fighting,” Quinley recalled Wednesday.

Newly graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1948, Simmonds moved to California, where her father had been transferred during the war, and worked as a reporter covering the cities of Beaumont, Tracy and Hemet. She would later meet Tom Keevil, then editor of the Banning Record, whom she married in July 1954.

The duo soon after moved to Costa Mesa, raising daughters Katie and Connie and occasionally covering city council or school board meetings with children in tow. Their love of newspapers endured, even after the couple later divorced.

Jeanne Keevil, right, at work in 1957 in the newsroom of the Globe-Herald, which would later merge to become the Orange Coast Daily Pilot.

(Courtesy of Katie Essick)

“I think it was one of the things that brought them together — they could talk in a newspaper language,” Quinley said, recalling her parents’ glee at discovering mistakes in print and sharing them with friends.

“The word ‘typo’ was one of the words we heard growing up. [Journalism] was definitely part of our lives,” she continued. “Interesting people would come to dinner and they’d share stories with everyone.”

Following her divorce, Jeanne Keevil worked for the Leisure World Weekly and the Saddleback Valley News in Mission Viejo before coming to helm Irvine World News. Founded in 1970, the publication preceded the city’s incorporation on Dec. 28, 1971.

Jeanne Keevil, in 2022, with great-granddaughter Mara and a Webster’s New World Dictionary.

(Courtesy of Katie Essick)

Reporters and editors at Irvine World News trod a fine line between representing the views of their Irvine Co. parent and maintaining the journalistic integrity of an independent news-gathering organization.

“I am a journalist. I am not a company advocate,” Keevil told the Los Angeles Times in 1988, adding, “We are not an Irvine Co. house organ. Our credibility is as high as we could hope for.”

She was awarded the John (Sky) Dunlap award for life achievement in journalism in 1989 and is an honoree on the city of Irvine’s Wall of Recognition.

Keevil is survived by daughter Katie Essick and husband John, of Portland, Ore., Connie Quinley and husband John, of Anchorage, Alaska, as well as grandchildren Eden, Elizabeth, Wade, Nathan and Devon, great-grandchildren Jacob, Mara, Tate and Emilia and several nieces and nephews.

A service is planned for Jan. 20 at Kenilworth Presbyterian Church in Portland and will be livestreamed. For details, email [email protected]. At her request, donations in Keevil’s memory may be made to the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism.