Retired Beaumont Gazette reporter remembers good times at weekly newspaper in the early 1950s

Jeanne Simmonds Keevil remembers Banning and Beaumont when they were much smaller cities from 1949 to 1952.

Keevil, now 91 and living in Portland, Ore., was a reporter and copy editor for the Beaumont Gazette, the precursor to the Record Gazette.

Keevil was on her way to Palm Desert last week with her daughters, Katie Essick and Connie Quinley, when they went for a sightseeing tour of the two cities. They drove past Beaumont City Hall and ate lunch at Tacos and Beer before heading over to the Record Gazette office to buy some newspapers.

Essick didn’t have quarters for the newsstand rack so she came inside to buy the last three issues. That’s when the story unfolded about her mother’s journalism career and three years at the Beaumont Gazette.

Mrs. Keevil hadn’t been to Beaumont for a long time and was pleasantly surprised.

“I was so happy to see that Beaumont and Banning had thrived so much,” she said.

Mrs. Keevil was born Jeanne Simmonds in Philadelphia to Edward and Beatrice Simmonds and had one sister, Cynthia, who has passed away.

The family lived in Springfield, Pa. and her father was serving in the Marines, his daughter said.

Mrs. Keevil graduated from Springfield High School and the family moved when she was 17 to San Diego because of her father’s military career.

She went to the University of Oregon to study journalism.

Mrs. Keevil loved to read and loved words. She graduated in 1948 with her journalism degree and came back to Southern California and her family, determined to get a job in her chosen field.

And she found a listing in the California Newspaper Publishers Association newsletter.

She interviewed for the job at the Beaumont Gazette and was hired as a reporter.

In 1949, the office was located on Fifth Street in Beaumont, which was taken out when the freeway came in during the 1950s, said Kyle Warsinski, economic development manager for the city.

The Beaumont Gazette had five employees – a linotype operator, pressroom, composing, publisher and reporter.

When the paper prospered, they were able to hire employees to take subscriptions, Mrs. Keevil said.

As a reporter, she said she had areas to cover for the paper. “I covered all of the society (events), weddings, teas and social events,” she said.

Other stories she wrote were family reunions and obituaries.

The publisher covered Beaumont City Hall, she said.

Mrs. Keevil said she was especially good at finding feature stories, whether it be church news, birthdays or graduations.

She also knew what she could not cover and that was sports, especially baseball.

“I told the publisher, “If you want sports coverage, you’ll have to do it yourself,” she said.

Mrs. Keevil said the Gazette was published on Thursdays and was a “fairly healthy” paper, as far as pages.

She rented a room with kitchen privileges at a house within walking distance of the paper. Mrs. Keevil said she earned between $30 to $40 a week as a reporter. She remembered that gas and electricity cost about $2.80 a month.

Around 1952, she met the editor of the Banning Record, Thomas Keevil. They married in 1954 and their careers took them to other newspapers, where he became editor of what would become the Daily Pilot in Costa Mesa and the Las Vegas Review Journal.

She worked at papers in San Joaquin county and Hemet and also at the Irvine World News for 21 years. Mrs. Keevil, who has five grandchildren and one-great grandchild on the way, retired in 1992.

Now she lives in Portland and so does her daughter Katie Essick and her husband John. Her other daughter, Connie Quinley and her husband John, lives in Anchorage.

Mrs. Keevil said the biggest change she has seen in the newspaper industry has been the introduction of the Internet and its impact on journalism. She said she has seen the demise of some very good newspapers

She loved the time she spent writing for newspapers and how they affect the communities they report on.

“The really important papers are the community newspapers,” she said.