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Ina Gail Jaffe (September 17, 1948 – August 1, 2024) was an American journalist. She was a longtime correspondent for NPR.

Early life

Jaffe was born in Chicago in 1948 to Charlotte Jaffe, an elementary school teacher, and Max Jaffe, a luggage manufacturer. She grew up in Glencoe. As a teenager, Jaffe sang and played guitar at coffeehouses in the city, and she began acting while attending New Trier High School.

Jaffe attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1972. She went on to obtain a master's degree in philosophy from DePaul University in 1977.

Career

In the 1970s, Jaffe and her husband, Lenny Kleinfeld, were members of the Chicago Organic Theater Company. While working as an actress and waitress, Jaffe also wrote some pieces for the Chicago Reader. After becoming a journalist, Jaffe used her theater background to combine "dramatic narrative" with a matter-of-fact attitude.

Jaffe was an early member of NPR's Chicago bureau in the late 1970s. In 1983, Jaffe covered the election of Harold Washington, Chicago's first Black mayor.

In 1985, after moving to NPR's office in Washington, D.C., she became the first editor of NPR's Weekend Edition. She also appeared on All Things Considered and Morning Edition.

In the late 1980s, she moved to Los Angeles to work for NPR's Western Bureau in Southern California. There, she covered the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the 2003 election of Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor.

In her later years, Jaffe was NPR's correspondent on aging, telling stories about aging "with no cuteness or condescension". In 2011 and 2012 she broke a story about the Veterans Administration leasing portions of its West Los Angeles Medical Center campus to businesses that were not focused on serving veterans. Her reporting on the case won her awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Alliance for Women in Media. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Jaffe reported on its impact on nursing homes.

Personal life and death

Jaffe married her husband, Lenny Kleinfeld, in 1969. The two had met while attending the University of Wisconsin.

Jaffe was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012, and with metastatic breast cancer in 2019. She wrote about the diagnosis publicly in 2021. She died from the cancer in Los Angeles, on August 1, 2024, at the age of 75.

References

1. ^ Lindner, Emmett (2024-08-03). "Ina Jaffe, Dogged and Award-Winning NPR Reporter, Dies at 75". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-08-19.
2. ^ Langer, Emily (2024-08-06). "Ina Jaffe, stalwart NPR correspondent, dies at 75". The Washington Post.
3. ^ Dudek, Mitch (2024-08-10). "Ina Jaffe, NPR correspondent, former Chicago actor, has died at 75". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2024-08-19.
4. ^ Simon, Scott (2024-08-03). "Opinion: Remembering our colleague and friend, Ina Jaffe". NPR.
5. ^ Bates, Karen Grigsby (2024-08-01). "Remembering the life and work of NPR correspondent Ina Jaffe". NPR.
6. Jaffe, Ina (2021-06-22). "Why I Kept My Cancer A Secret, And Why I Won't Anymore". NPR. Retrieved 2024-08-19.

• 1948 births
• 2024 deaths
• 20th-century American actresses
• 20th-century American journalists
• 20th-century American women journalists
• 21st-century American journalists
• 21st-century American women journalists
• Actresses from Chicago
• American radio journalists
• American stage actresses
• American women editors
• American women radio journalists
• Deaths from breast cancer in California
• DePaul University alumni
• Journalists from Chicago
• New Trier High School alumni
• NPR personalities
• People from Glencoe, Illinois
• University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni