T-R PHOTO BY MIKE DONAHEY — Sara Jordan-Heintz of Norwalk is shown reading from her book “Going Hollywood: Midwesterners in Movie Land” at the Beaman Library on Saturday, where the author and journalist spoke before the Beaman’s Women’s Club.

BEAMAN — An author and journalist whose work is familiar to many Central Iowans caught up with readers, and discussed her new book project before the Beaman Women’s Club Saturday at the Beaman Library.

Sara Jordan-Heintz, 32, of Norwalk, developed a strong following during a multi-year tenure as a prize-winning reporter with the Times-Republican before moving on and working for newspapers in Boone and Indianola.

When not meeting frequent and demanding newspaper deadlines, Jordan-Heintz found time, and still does, to write many magazine articles for Antique Trader, Rock and Gem and others.

Jordan-Heintz told attendees she began her career as a journalist at age 14, helping her parents with editing and writing selections for the family-owned Midwest Today magazine.

“I was excited about the entry-level tasks I was assigned, and I wanted to see where that would lead,” she said.

She cited her father and fellow journalist Larry Jordan — who lived in Florida for many years before recently returning to West Des Moines — as a major influence.

“My dad encouraged me then. He helps me now and offers valuable advice about a wide-variety of subjects,” she said.

Her interest piqued, Jordan-Heintz would be given progressively more editing and writing responsibility from the family business. The magazine ceased print publication several years ago, but Larry Jordan currently has a Midwest Today-themed radio show.

Later, Jordan-Heintz wrote a 12-chapter, 94-page science-fiction story, “A Day Saved is a Day Earned.”

It was included with stories from other emerging writers in “Submitted for Your Approval,” published by Rod Serling Books in 2015 and edited by Serling’s daughter Anne Serling.

Rod Serling first gained literary fame, then moved into television with his popular “Twilight Zone” series. Jordan-Heintz’s interest in the genre continues as she recently accepted an offer to be editor of a science-fiction anthology book.

She and her team will review submissions and edit the text. At Saturday’s event, Jordan-Heintz also read selections from her first book, “Going Hollywood: Midwesterners in Movie Land” — a collection of stories about late Hollywood celebrities born in the Midwest.

They ranged from Ann Baxter (Indiana) to Clark Gable (Ohio) to Spencer Tracy (Wisconsin). The celebrity profiles are approximately 25-pages long.

“My goal was to provide readers a lot of information about the actors, actresses and columnists versus having them buy a 500-page book,” she said. “The stories had initially appeared in Midwest Today, but I updated many of them with new information.”

In addition to other journalism pursuits, Jordan-Heintz told the club members a significant amount of time is now devoted to her new book about the late columnist, journalist and television game show panelist Dorothy Kilgallen.

She said her interest in Kilgallen, a Chicago native who died at age 52 in 1965, was generated from an interest in Kilgallen’s life as a trailblazing woman journalist and from a piece she did on Kilgallen for Midwest Today, which has been cited by other authors writing about Kilgallen and related subjects.

“Kilgallen broke a lot of barriers as a talented woman reporter, covering high-profile crimes like the Dr. Sam Sheppard murder trial,” Jordan-Heintz said. “In those days, the large majority of women reporters were relegated to covering society news and flower shows.”

(Sheppard was convicted in 1954 of murdering his pregnant wife after a highly-publicized trial.

Jordan -Heintz credited Kilgallen with reporting on alleged prejudicial statements from the presiding judge. Those statements, among other factors, would help gain Sheppard a new trial where he was exonerated. Later DNA evidence recovered from the crime scene would prove Sheppard’s innocence).

Kilgallen was also an extremely popular columnist for the New York Evening Journal and also had a 15-year tenure from 1950-65 as a panelist on the popular CBS show “What’s My Line?”

Kilgallen would later take up a crusading effort to uncover additional information about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

“She was passionate about knowing more,” Jordan-Heintz said. “She did not believe, or was highly skeptical of some of the information in the ‘Warren Commission Report.'”

The report was the U.S. Government’s official version of events leading up to, during and immediately following the assassination. All members of the commission agreed with its findings.

It was made public in September 1964, and nearly 59 years later, it still attracts a legion of critics who allege much of its findings were incomplete, unprofessional and whitewashed.

Jordan-Heintz said Kilgallen was able to secure two exclusive interviews with the late Jack Ruby (aka Jacob Rubenstein), who was arrested and charged with killing Lee Harvey Oswald — the suspected Kennedy assassin — within a few days after the president was killed.

Jordan-Heintz said the circumstances behind Kilgallen’s sudden and inexplicable death in her New York City apartment — allegedly the result of an alcohol and barbiturate-overdose — is bothersome to her as a journalist.

“Her notes on the Kennedy assassination were missing,” Jordan-Heintz said.

Jordan-Heintz’s appearance was part of the 2023 Iowa Author program sponsored by the Beaman Women’s Club and the Beaman Library.

The author and reporter — who won the Genevieve Mauck Stoufer Outstanding Young Iowa Journalist Award from the Iowa Newspaper Association — rejoined the T-R as a contributing writer several months ago, and she has enjoyed the opportunity to reconnect with the community she once called home.

Accompanying Jordan-Heintz to the event was her husband Andy Heintz and their eight-month-old daughter Louisa.