8 simple questions with Gazette photographer Jerilee Bennett
Gazette photographer Jerilee Bennett has been with The Gazette since 1986. To get to know Jerilee away from the camera, I asked her a few simple questions.
Question: Where are you from and how did you end up in Colorado?
Answer: I grew up in a small rural town in Missouri called Fredericktown. My first job out of school was in Texas at the Texarkana Gazette. A photographer friend who worked for the KC Star told me about an opening at the Colorado Sun. They didn’t fly me out, but I got the job, packed up my Mustang, and headed for Colorado. Of course, I was blown away when I drove into town and saw the mountains for the first time. I remember that my boss at the time, Mark Reis, told me that the first thing I needed to do was to take off my Texas license plates.
Q: When did you know you wanted to be a photographer?
A: Babysitting money helped me buy my first SLR camera when I was in junior high and I was hooked. I took a lot of photos for the yearbook and even had the weekly high school column in the weekly paper, called The Cat’s Meow. I knew I wanted to go into journalism school and be a photographer. I was very lucky that one of the most esteemed journalism schools in the country, the University of Missouri, was right up the road.
Q: What’s the best part of your job? The worst?
A: The best part of my job is getting to do and see worlds that I never knew existed. When I think I’ve seen everything, I get surprised by an assignment. I love to inform people about interesting or newsworthy subjects. I’m constantly scanning the horizons for anything interesting or new in the city.
The least favorite part of my job is covering events where trauma has happened to someone. I think it’s very important to document those events, but they are sad to cover.
Q: What has been one of your strangest or funniest moments while on the job?
A: One of my craziest days was one year when I started my day covering an event at the top of Pikes Peak in August. It was extremely cold up there that day and it got down to 10 degrees with the wind chill. After I was done, I went to Pueblo to cover the first day of the State Fair in Pueblo and it was 100 degrees.
Christian Murdock and I were covering the 2014 Super Bowl in New York.
Q: What’s the most enjoyable/memorable story you’ve worked on?
A: My favorite assignment was when I talked The Gazette into sending me to Europe for the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. The 71st Division was based at what was then called Camp Carson. The men of the division were doing a reunion bus trip of places where they were during the war. One of their stops was where they liberated a concentration camp called Gunskirchen. Three of the soldiers had settled in Colorado Springs after the war, and I concentrated on those men.
It was the most incredible experience of my life.
Q: Who are your heroes in real life?
A: My dad, the best person I’ve ever known. I have always admired the way he interacts with people. He owned a tractor dealership while I was growing up and I admired the way he treated his customers. He was a wonderful listener and had a great laugh that always sounded sincere. He passed away in May. It was hard to say goodbye.
Q: What is a passion you have that people might find surprising?
A: I’m a sports junkie, especially basketball and football. When I came to the Colorado Sun in 1983, my boss told me that the Broncos had a new quarterback that was supposed to be pretty good, John Elway. Twenty years later, I got to cover his induction into the Hall of Fame. My current obsession is the Nuggets. Jokic is so much fun to watch and cover. I can’t believe Joker won the MVP.
Q: Tell me about a time you were completely starstruck.
A: Jimmy Stewart’s wife, Gloria, was a graduate of Colorado College. They were in town for a fundraiser, and I got to take his photo.
I took my photo with him, something I rarely do, and was completely tongue-tied. I managed to tell him that he was my favorite actor and he was very gracious, just like I thought he would be.
Gazette photographer Jerilee Bennett plants a kiss on the beak of Dinger while getting ready to shoot a Rockies game.
Gazette photographer Jerilee Bennett takes photos at a bear rescue after the bear was tranquilized before taking it up into the mountains and releasing it.
A 1988 article in the regional magazine for the 1988 top ten photographers for our region in NPPA (National Press Photographer’s Association).(Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
Joker picks up the MVP trophy as Nuggets owner Josh Kroenke (right) and teammates cheer in the background before game 3 of the conference semifinals on Friday, June 11, 2021. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)