Wild & Free

The One and Only Jana Bommersbach

1945-2024

A whirlwind of ink and drama, Jana Bommersbach never blinked in the pursuit of a great story. Ever. She was an omnipotent presence in any room she entered. Her passion for writing, for truth, for justice—for the First Amendment—were guideposts that drove Jana forward every day. For five decades, Jana was an inspiration to her peers in journalism. She never backed down from a bully; she was a thorn in the side of every politician; and she was unwavering in her pursuit of a good story.

When did I first discover the power of Jana’s pen? It had to be when I moved to Tempe, Arizona, and began a tenure working in the KTVK-TV3 newsroom in 1986. There was no internet, no cell phones. You sought the news from all its sources—radio,
TV, local newspapers, weekly news magazines—and in Phoenix—the weekly alternative newspaper, The New Times. And by 1986, Jana Bommersbach was a news-breaker every week with her no-holds-barred style of journalism. She and her colleagues at Phoenix New Times, including True West’s very own Bob Boze Bell, challenged the status quo every week with their withering, hard-hitting style of journalism. No one in the business of reporting the news in Arizona could ignore the alternative newspaper as it forced the entrenched powers at the local editorial newsrooms in print, radio and TV to take notice and pursue a higher level of investigative journalism. And from day one, Jana Bommersbach led the way.

When did I first meet Jana? Hard to say…probably at a political event KTVK-TV3 was covering—but only in passing. Jana was yet to be a local TV celebrity—in the 1980s her hands were ink-stained with newsprint—and it was one of her groundbreaking stories—on the infamous Winnie Ruth Judd—that finally brought me face-to-face with her powerful personality. After reading her multi-part series on Judd in the April editions of New Times, I called my father, Jeb Rosebrook, a Hollywood writer-producer, and suggested that he and his partner, Joe Byrne, option Jana’s articles for a movie or miniseries. The option led to Jana writing her biography of Judd, the option and development of scripts of The Trunk Murderess into a miniseries, but unfortunately, as it happens often in Hollywood, it ran into studio-network squabbles and was never produced. (Maybe, now we should do it!!) What
it did produce was a cherished friendship—and one last surprise (other than calls about how we could get Winnie produced) that lasted until Jana’s passing earlier this year.

That surprise—and great honor—was that I was Jana’s editor at True West. How could I have ever imagined—going back nearly 40 years to my work as a young journalist, working as an assignment editor at KTVK-TV3—that I would someday be Jana Bommersbach’s editor? As editor of Jana’s True West column, “Old West Saviors,” I found she was a dream to work with—even when I ended up working as a negotiator and peacemaker between her and Bob Boze Bell on the creation of their final (and only) book together—Hellraisers & Trailblazers: The Real Women of the Wild West.

A true woman of the West—born and raised on the plains of North Dakota—Jana will always be an inspiration to me as a writer, historian and editor. Thank you, Jana. I will miss your calls, your pursuit of the truth, and love of a new, undiscovered story. Your legacy as a hellraiser and trailblazer will live on through your writing for many generations. And as you once reminded me, never leave home without a shovel, pen and paper. You never know when you might have to uncover a dead body and meet an editor’s deadline with a new, groundbreaking story.

—Stuart Rosebrook

 

 

Athia Hardt’s Eulogy for Jana

When Jana Bommersbach walked into The Arizona Republic and said to me, “Hi. I’m Jana.  What are you doing for dinner tonight?” It was the beginning of a 52-year friendship that sometimes felt like a sisterhood, with all the ups and downs that come with being sisters. 

But it was more than that too, it was a clear statement of who Jana was, not just for me, but for all of you too.  Friendly, not afraid to approach a stranger, always willing to party, and open to new experiences. Whether you knew Jana for five decades, watched her on television or listened to a podcast, what you saw was what you got.

As you all know, she was a great writer, an amazing author, and the recipient of too many awards to list. These have all been written about in the days since she left us, and if you’ve missed the list, you can google it or go to her website. There is no question it was an amazing career. But I’m not going to talk about that today.  I want to talk about my friend and yours.

Let’s spend just a few minutes admitting what Jana was not.  She was not a housekeeper.  In fact, in her first Hoover Street home, there was a big sign as you entered the kitchen that said, “Well, a word I shouldn’t say here, followed by Housework.” She had other things to do, and that was pretty much her motto all her life.

She was not good at money.  Not at all.  She just didn’t want to deal with it.  Many times she would call me, on Cloud Nine about some project she’d agreed to do, and I’d say, “That’s fabulous. What are they going to pay you?” (Knowing the likely answer.)  And she’d say, “I forgot to ask.”

Although she was one of the best researchers and writers I ever knew, she was a terrible speller.  And she didn’t bother to spell-check either.

In fact, she laughed about these things, because they weren’t her focus.  She cared about telling stories, about offering points of view that we might not have considered and about raising unknown heroes, like the early west women with whom she identified.

 

 

She cared about raising all women up.  She would have been delighted to know that the Democratic Party nominated a woman for the presidency.  In fact, she would be making phone calls for her right now. (Sorry; you didn’t think you were going to get through a talk about Jana without politics being mentioned, did you?)

As much as she loved writing, Jana loved more just being with friends and both her birth family and the Phoenix family she created. Really, Jana loved people.  I once told her, when we were both in our 20s, “Jana, wherever you go, there’s a party.”  Even as we both grew older, she said it was the best thing I ever said about her.

I’ll tell you a secret:  That tough reporter who could stop freeways and shine spotlights on human trafficking, also was a softie. For more than 40 years, Jana threw an annual Christmas party for the children of her friends. Santa came and, by the end, not only was each child holding a gift, but Santa’s sleigh was filled with gifts donated for children in hospitals.

And she could sometimes be a little too trusting in her personal dealings with people. When she first came to Phoenix, and we were living paycheck-to-paycheck, she badly wanted to buy a piano. She put up a sign on the newsroom bulletin board, saying she was looking for a cheap used piano.  And lo and behold, a guy in the sports department offered to sell her one AND deliver it.  About a month later, he called and asked to borrow it back. He wanted to have a party.  He’d pick it up and return it.  You got it.  After a few weeks, the piano hadn’t returned.  A few weeks later, he declared bankruptcy, and Jana vowed to go testify at his hearing as a debtor.  When she came back to the newsroom, I asked how it went, and she said, “I couldn’t do it.  Athia, you won’t believe this, but when he saw me, he THANKED me for coming to show support.”

 

 

There are many stories like that one.  Because you can’t open your heart without taking a risk, and Jana did that every day.

So to my friend, Jana, who never forgave me for moving to Seattle, we say goodbye today.

Goodbye to the biggest fan of Christmas I ever met. Goodbye to the lady who held two states—Arizona and North Dakota—in her heart. Goodbye to the friend who was always looking for an excuse to throw a party. Goodbye to the lover of yard sales and thrift shops.  Goodbye to the Do It Yourselfer who experimented with stained glass and sewed hundreds of flowing overtops for special occasions.  And goodbye to the collector of everything—glassware of all kinds, dolls, ceramic turtles, storyteller dolls, bells, anything Christmas, but especially nutcrackers and nativity scenes, copper, perfume bottles…everything that caught her eye. Jana collected friends everywhere she went, and we will miss her.

On her FaceBook page, when I was looking for photos, I found a lovely but unattributed quote:

“We need to hang around people that pour water on the fires of our fears and throw gasoline on the passions of our dreams.”

Jana did that.

—Athia Hardt

 

Jana Bommersbach by the numbers

Total number of writing awards: 40

Named Journalist of the Year Award: 2

Don Bolles Award For Investigative Journalism (1988-1999): 2

Emmys: 2

Inducted into the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame: 1

Number of books published: 8

Number of Christmas parties held: 43

Number of True West features: 12

Number of Old West Saviors columns written: 370

Number of fans: countless