Mary Neiswender

MARY AMY NEISWENDER died March 15, 2025 at the age of 98. She was born and raised in San Pedro, and always considered San Pedro her home.

The most important part of her life was her family: her mother, Kati Bogdanovich Joncich, her father Luka Joncich, and her brothers and sisters, Mike, Andy and Kay. She said they were the home she always came back to, even through a life filled with excitement.

She went to the University of Southern California, majoring in journalism. She notes that as the only woman in the class, she was consistently made to feel unwelcome, but that only strengthened her resolve. She said she always wanted to be a newspaper reporter, and she dreamed “Front Page,” the famous movie about a woman reporter.

After a short stint in radio, she went to work for the Long Beach Independent Press Telegram, and over the next 40 years, she won every possible award except the Pulitzer Prize, for which she was nominated twice. She was famous for her interviews with newsmakers that were not willing to talk to others: her interviews with Charlie Manson earned her one of her Pulitzer nominations, and is the subject of a new book, “Charlie & Me,” which she was working on in the last years of her life. Another of her books, “Assassins, Serial Killers & Corrupt Cops,” talks about her life as (often) the only woman in a male-dominated field, and the many “scoops” she gathered. She spoke with serial killers, with presidents, corrupt officials, and too many confidential informants to count. In the great tradition of American journalism, Mary exposed corruption, forced the passage of legislation, and shed light on the dark corners of Los Angeles. Mary’s colleagues called her a force of nature, a reporter’s reporter, a woman of infinite heart and imagination.

Mary was the first woman to be elected President of the Los Angeles Press Club, and was a founding member of an important national organization, the Investigative Reporters and Editors. She was honored for her work by the state of California, the city and county of Los Angeles and many others. She taught journalism for a short time at Cal State Long Beach, hoping to teach the next generation of reporters how it’s done. She was dismayed at the decline of the American newspaper, and the partisanship of modern television news.

She is survived by her son Mark Neiswender, her daughter Kate Neiswender, and a host of grandchildren.