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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2016
GUEST COLUMN
Oregon Coast loses a pioneering journalist
By SAMANTHA
SWINDLER
The Oregonian
LeeAnn Neal, a longtime
local journalist and pioneering
daughter of Tillamook County,
died on Saturday, less than two
months after she was diagnosed
with stage 4 liver cancer.
As was her way, LeeAnn,
46, didn’t want folks to make a
fuss. She spent nearly a month
in the hospital, much of it in
intensive care, but was always
upbeat when describing her
health issues.
The cancer had been discov-
ered during emergency surgery.
After post-op complications,
it became clear it was quite
advanced. She was waiting to
tell friends about her diagnosis,
but never got the chance.
It was left to LeeAnn’s fam-
ily to share the news of her
rapid decline in health.
LeeAnn arrived at Nehalem
Bay House on Friday, where
she was meant to receive end-
of-life care.
By Saturday night, she was
gone.
Oregon stock
LeeAnn came from true
Oregon stock. She was a
sixth-generation Tillamook res-
ident whose great-great-great
grandfather, Elbridge Trask,
was among the area’s first
white settlers in the 1850s.
She started covering local
news as a teenager, and over the
years served as a tireless ampli-
fier of her community’s tri-
umphs — and a tactful recorder
of its tragedies. Her work
appeared locally in the The
Daily Astorian, North Coast
Citizen, Tillamook Headlight
Herald and Coast River Busi-
ness Journal, and sometimes
statewide in The Oregonian.
Most recently — and most
personally — LeeAnn helped
start the Tillamook County Pio-
neer, a hyperlocal online news
source, in July 2013.
She was one of the first peo-
ple I met when I moved to Til-
lamook in 2010 to work for
the Headlight Herald. LeeAnn
called it a “grand old dame” of
a newspaper.
She
wore
oversized,
untucked men’s button shirts
and had a wild mane of curly
dark hair. You could hear her
coming, that loud voice, that
booming laugh, that joyous
bounce in her step.
All Tillamook, through and
through.
Connections
Later, after I moved to For-
est Grove, the demands of dead-
lines and the distance between
us meant we most often com-
municated online. We left a
digital trail of more than 5,000
Facebook messages, preserving
our conversations about coastal
Neal Family/Submitted Photo
LeeAnn Neal, shown with brother Dan Neal, died Saturday.
She was one of the founders of the Tillamook County Pio-
neer online news site.
gossip and encouragement in
an often stressful profession.
After my first column at
The Oregonian, she told me,
“I hate writing, too, but, as
the saying goes, I love having
written.”
I know that’s a Dorothy
Parker quote. But to me, it will
always be LeeAnn Neal’s.
We often daydreamed about
starting or buying a community
paper, making it work within
what LeeAnn jokingly called
her “maverick-no-resources
lifestyle.” We’d share ideas on
revenue models and paywalls.
And we’d consult with one
another while writing sensitive
stories.
“The Tillamook County
Pioneer staff is small, as is our
community,” she wrote once
as a disclaimer. “If I were to
avoid writing about everything
that touches my personal life,
I would have to skip a lot of
worthwhile articles.”
Journalism of
attachment
LeeAnn was a first-name-
only celebrity in Tillamook
County. She understood the
journalism of attachment —
of caring about the people
and places you report on —
which is the only journalism
of value you can provide for a
rural town. She cared because
she was connected, directly
or indirectly, by blood or by
heart, to everyone she wrote
about.
During festivals and floods,
major events, people looked to
LeeAnn to tell it straight and
accurate.
David Dillon, who worked
with LeeAnn as editor of Man-
zanita’s North Coast Citizen
from 1996 to 2003, said she
chased news and feature stories
“with equal ferocity.”
“She would invariably come
back with great work,” he said,
“complete with more details,
quotes and insights on the topic
than I ever imagined would be
there.”
“Her office was clear across
the building from mine, but I
always knew when she was in
her office because I could hear
that wonderful laugh,” said
Carol Hungerford, co-owner of
the Tillamook Headlight Herald.
“I miss her for the joy and integ-
rity she brought to her craft.”
Not well
Looking back through our
conversations this year, I real-
ized how often LeeAnn felt ill.
How she couldn’t shake a cold.
How she had to cancel plans.
How she kept trying new diets
and vitamins and workouts.
How we commiserated about
seasonal-affective disorder.
“For the last few months,
I’ve been having lots of frus-
trating memory issues (mostly
involving the names of peo-
ple, places and things), trouble
concentrating and a flare-up of
my old OCD (obsessive-com-
pulsive disorder) intrusive
thoughts,” she wrote in March.
“I’ve also been tearing up from
time to time for no good reason
and having a hard time motivat-
ing myself to work, which isn’t
like me.”
Not ‘a lot of time’
I visited LeeAnn the day
she died. I had been told only
that she “didn’t have a lot of
time,” which I interpreted to
mean days, weeks or maybe
months.
But when we arrived Satur-
day afternoon, the nurse said
she had only a few hours left.
She was in a coma, but could
still hear us, we were told.
We took turns sitting near
her bedside, telling her how
much she meant to us, how
thankful we were for her
friendship. Hundreds of well-
wishes came in over social
media and they were read to
her in her final hours.”Thank
you, LeeAnn, for your life, for
your brilliant, heartfelt jour-
nalism that knit the commu-
nity together in love, humor
and honesty,” wrote Helen
Hill.
“You gave and gave and
gave to us.”
This is, sadly, the second
death to hit the Pioneer’s small
staff in a little more than a year.
Another friend and co-founder,
Will Seymour, died of can-
cer on Sept. 26, 2015, his 29th
birthday.
It’s unclear what will hap-
pen to the Pioneer without
LeeAnn, but her family hopes
to keep it going in some form.
A memorial service will be
held at 2 pm Jan. 7, at Tilla-
mook Church of the Nazarene.
Cannon Beach Arts Association, director abruptly part ways
Brumfield
leaves arts
association
By LYRA FONTAINE
and R.J. Marx
The Daily Astorian
CANNON BEACH —
Two weeks ago, Jane Brum-
field was accepting a grant
from the Clatsop County
Cultural Coalition at a cere-
mony at the Clatsop County
Community College’s South
Campus.
This week, Brumfield left
the post. In a text statement,
she said she would prefer not
to talk about her former orga-
nization and she “only wishes
them well.”
Brumfield accepted $600
from the coalition on behalf of
the Cannon Beach Arts Associ-
ation’s “Artists Talk,” a series
aimed at sharing information
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Jane Brumfield accepts a grant on behalf of the Cannon
Beach Arts Association at the cultural awards ceremony
in December.
and experiences between art-
ists and arts professionals.
Cannon Beach Arts Asso-
ciation Board President Lila
Wickham said the organiza-
tion’s board will begin post-
ing for a replacement in
January.
“The Cannon Beach Arts
Association wishes the best of
luck to Jane Brumfield, who
has served as the program art
director for the last year and
a half,” Wickham said in a
statement to members. “Jane
is stepping away, allowing
herself to focus on her mas-
ter’s degree program in arts
administration.”
Wickham said Brumfield
and her husband, Mike, “have
generously contributed pas-
sion, talent, and time to our
association. … We are grateful
for Jane’s service and wish her
and Mike health, happiness,
and great art in the future.”
The Cannon Beach Arts
Association supports, funds
and enhances the arts and art-
ists in the city and the region
through education, events
and exhibits. In the past, the
arts association was known
for multidisciplinary events,
ry Christmas
r
e
M
to the Lower Columbia area
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Courtney Ann
My Angel in Heaven
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My soul fi nds rest in God alone;
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Love always, forever and ever
Dadio
Park section of Boise, Idaho,
since 2009.
In an interview prior to
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Arts Festival, Brumfield said
she sought to bring “as many
voices in as possible to get
so we get a good range of
work to look at, and to select
from.”
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adding concerts and spe-
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Those aspects are less empha-
sized today, with the gallery
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Brumfield, who moved
to the region with her hus-
band Michael in June 2015,
had run a gallery in the Hyde
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