Roberta "Jolene" Stevens

Veteran Siouxland print and broadcast journalist, media relations specialist and educator Roberta “Jolene” Stevens, 80, died Wednesday, Aug. 1, at a Sioux City care center.

Jolene was born on May 7, 1938 to Frances (Shimer) and Robert Stevens. The family lived on a century farm one mile west of Morrison, Iowa. Jolene earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural journalism in 1961 from Iowa State University (ISU). Her roots in agriculture provided a strong base, giving her the confidence to build a diverse and effective career in the male dominated field of news, media relations and free-lance reporting and writing.

She began her career with a brief stint at the Carbon County News, Red Lodge, Mont. She landed her first full-time newsroom position at the Fort Dodge (Iowa) Messenger. She later returned to Fort Dodge as a staff writer for the Farm News weekly.

Jolene went on to work for the Spencer (Iowa) Daily Reporter, KTIV-Channel 4, KMEG-Channel 14 and KCAU-Channel 9. Career highlights at KCAU included her coverage of the 1972 Rapid City, S.D., Flood, and an interview with Oglala Lakota activist Russell Means during the 1973 siege at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. She believed in working hard, digging to the heart of a story. Her interviewing style often-lead one story into another.

Most recently, she was a special correspondent for the Le Mars (Iowa) Daily Sentinel, the Dakota County (Nebraska) Star and covered Northwest Iowa for Farm-News.com.

Jolene was employed in media relations at the Sioux City Stockyards Co., Goodwill Industries, the National Pork Producers Council, the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association and Kay Dee. She was the first woman named an honorary firefighter by Local 7 of the International Association of Firefighters. She taught journalism at University of South Dakota where she often visited with students about their career choices and strongly encouraged all to take at least one journalism class for career preparedness.

Jolene wrote several books, including: “Pigs! Lifting Mortgages, People and Communities” for Lyon, Sioux and Plymouth county pork producers; and “Remembering Yesterday, Embracing Tomorrow,” a 125 th anniversary book for South Sioux City. As time allowed, Jolene free-lanced as a family history writer. She was working on a Gill Family history when she became ill.

Jolene was one of five panelists at ISU’s 2014 Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication Futures Forum Panel where panelists guided students’ preparation for internships and careers. She advised students, whether their emphasis was news or public relations, to begin their careers with basic local and regional experience. Such experience develops “a good basic tool in one-on-one, working with sources and people in general in this digital age,” she said. She often stated, “It’s all about the connections.”

Jolene is survived by: her brother, Jim, of St. Joseph, Mo.; her long-time special friend, Andrea Gates of Nashua, IA; and Wyatt and Lynn Mellick and their children of Waterbury, Neb., with whom she shared a special family bond; and many friends and colleagues.