Jackie Devereaux
Encyclopedia
Jackie Devereaux is an American screenwriter, newspaper editor, television and radio reporter who worked primarily in Southern California and Las Vegas, Nevada. Devereaux graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of California, San Diego
with a bachelor's degree in Literature and Writing. She also was the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Desert Valley Star, an alternative weekly newspaper serving the Palm Springs area. However, after a near-death experience from eosinophilic leukemina in November 2008, she was forced to resign from her position to recuperate. Devereaux moved to San Diego in July 2009 to seek alternative medical treatments and redirect her career to screenwriting.
During her recuperation, she was commissioned in October 2009 to write a spec script for a modern remake of the 1960s teen surf movies, Gidget
. Two years later, she signed her first Letter of Agreement with Gidget Worldwide Inc., for Writer's Credit, WGA wages, a job with the company, one point in the company and 10% commission on any funding she brought into the project. Gidget is currently in development and a major A-List Producer in Hollywood is expected to sign on to the project in early 2012.
Devereaux won second place in the 2010 Scriptapalooza Television Writing Contest for a one-hour existing dramatic episode entitled, House MD - The Perfect Storm based on her true life battle with chronic eosinophilic leukemia
. Her first full, feature-length screenplay entitled, Mars Bonfire, is a counter-culture story based on the true life adventures of her second husband. It advanced to the Semi-Final round of the 2010 Big Break Screenwriting Contest.
, Shadow Broadcasting, and Westwood One
in San Diego, California.
Devereaux moved to Las Vegas
, Nevada in February 1998 to be near her dying father and landed a job as an Weekend Assignment Editor for CBS
at KLAS-TV
. She also worked as the Press Secretary for San Diego Mayor Susan Golding
(1992) and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman
(1999) during their highly controversial and successful political campaigns. She worked for Weber-Shandwick Inc., the world's largest public relations firm in San Mateo, California as a Senior Account Executive handling HP Hewlett Packard, Agilent and other high-technology accounts. After the dot.com implosion of 2002-03, Devereaux worked as an assistant private investigator and process server for law firms in the San Francisco Bay area and Las Vegas where she served and filed legal documents in court, and conducted stake outs and surveillances in the field.
and several other newspapers and wire services in the region.
In June 1990, she traveled to Thailand
and married Craig George Michael Evers, aka Mars Bonfire
in a Buddhist ceremony at Big Buddha Beach, Koh Samui, Thailand. However, the couple never registered their marriage with American authorities. Her lawyer said, "At best, they were blessed by Buddhist monks." Devereaux left that marriage in February 1998 and relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada
. She remained single another 10 years until she married, Thomas William Devereaux, on April 26, 2008 at Dog's Beach in San Diego. Devereaux had no children.
She currently lives with her husband, Tom, in Desert Hot Springs, CA with their 11-year-old Pug
dog, Ray, who is the subject of her writings entitled, Travels With Ray.
Devereaux was the third of six children with two older brothers (John Ellsworth Jr. and James Ellwood), two younger sisters (Janice Ellen and Jaye Elva) and one younger brother (Jeffrey Erick). Her family traveled and relocated often, forcing Devereaux to attend numerous schools throughout her childhood. She ran away from home in June 1972 at the age of 16 and briefly lived with an aunt an uncle in Scranton, PA until internal domestic strife within the family forced her out on her own. She graduated from Dunmore High School in 1973 and received a scholorship to attend the University of Scranton as a Pre-Med major. During that educational experience, she on a whim, entered a talent contest and won first place as a solo-singer and guitar player. However, she abandoned those early efforts in music to pursue a college education working waitressing jobs until she graduated in 1984 earning a bachelor's degree in Literature and Writing. Immediately upon graduation, she landed a job as a Reporter for the Rancho Bernardo Journal and dedicated her life to a writing career.
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...
with a bachelor's degree in Literature and Writing. She also was the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Desert Valley Star, an alternative weekly newspaper serving the Palm Springs area. However, after a near-death experience from eosinophilic leukemina in November 2008, she was forced to resign from her position to recuperate. Devereaux moved to San Diego in July 2009 to seek alternative medical treatments and redirect her career to screenwriting.
During her recuperation, she was commissioned in October 2009 to write a spec script for a modern remake of the 1960s teen surf movies, Gidget
Gidget
Gidget is a fictional character created by author Frederick Kohner in his 1957 novel, Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas. The novel follows the adventures of a teenage girl and her surfing friends on the beach at Malibu. The name Gidget is a portmanteau of "girl and midget"...
. Two years later, she signed her first Letter of Agreement with Gidget Worldwide Inc., for Writer's Credit, WGA wages, a job with the company, one point in the company and 10% commission on any funding she brought into the project. Gidget is currently in development and a major A-List Producer in Hollywood is expected to sign on to the project in early 2012.
Devereaux won second place in the 2010 Scriptapalooza Television Writing Contest for a one-hour existing dramatic episode entitled, House MD - The Perfect Storm based on her true life battle with chronic eosinophilic leukemia
Chronic eosinophilic leukemia
Chronic eosinophilic leukemia is a disease in which too many eosinophils are found in the bone marrow, blood, and other tissues. CEL may stay the same for many years, or it may progress quickly to acute leukemia. It is generally caused by overactivation of the oncogene PDGFRA through a chromosome...
. Her first full, feature-length screenplay entitled, Mars Bonfire, is a counter-culture story based on the true life adventures of her second husband. It advanced to the Semi-Final round of the 2010 Big Break Screenwriting Contest.
Early Newspaper and Public Relations Experience
Prior to pursuing a screenwriting career, Devereaux began working in the 1980s as a reporter and freelance writer for newspapers, magazines and wire services such as, The Associated Press and County News Service, specializing in courts and politics in San Diego county. Her writing evolved from print to broadcast journalism in the 1990s when she became an On-Air Anchor for KSDO and XTRA radio, Metro NetworksMetro Networks
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/files/2011/04/Metro_Logo_bigger.jpgMetro Networks is a broadcasting outsourcing company based in Houston, Texas. It was a subsidiary of Westwood One until its sale to Clear Channel Communications in 2011...
, Shadow Broadcasting, and Westwood One
Westwood One
Westwood One was an American radio network and was based in New York City. At one time, it was managed by CBS Radio, the radio arm of CBS Corporation, and Viacom and was later purchased by the private equity firm The Gores Group...
in San Diego, California.
Devereaux moved to Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
, Nevada in February 1998 to be near her dying father and landed a job as an Weekend Assignment Editor for CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
at KLAS-TV
KLAS-TV
KLAS-TV, virtual channel 8 , is the CBS-affiliated television station serving the Las Vegas, Nevada market; it is owned and operated by Landmark Media Enterprises...
. She also worked as the Press Secretary for San Diego Mayor Susan Golding
Susan Golding
Susan G. Golding is an American Republican politician from California, best known as the former two-term mayor of San Diego. She is currently president and CEO of the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation in San Diego...
(1992) and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman
Oscar Goodman
Oscar Baylin Goodman is an American lawyer and politician. He was the mayor of Las Vegas, Nevada from 1999 to 2011. Mayor Goodman is an Independent and a former member of the Democratic Party.-Biography:...
(1999) during their highly controversial and successful political campaigns. She worked for Weber-Shandwick Inc., the world's largest public relations firm in San Mateo, California as a Senior Account Executive handling HP Hewlett Packard, Agilent and other high-technology accounts. After the dot.com implosion of 2002-03, Devereaux worked as an assistant private investigator and process server for law firms in the San Francisco Bay area and Las Vegas where she served and filed legal documents in court, and conducted stake outs and surveillances in the field.
Charitable Work
Throughout her career, Devereaux volunteered as a fundraiser for numerous charities including the Crime Victim's Fund, Taste of the Nation, Sail America Foundation, and the ZAPP Animal Sancturary. She currently is the Publicist for Scars To Freedom, a 501 c non-profit in Palm Desert dedicated to helping wounded military personnel receive free plastic surgery and remediation for scars and burns.Personal life
There is some obscurity regarding the number of times Devereaux has been legally married. She first married, John Robert Koznowsky, at the age of 18 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. After a year, the couple moved to San Diego, California where she worked as a restaurant waitress and he worked as an electrician. The couple separated in January 1980 and she returned to college, completed her degree at UCSD in 1984 and landed her first job in journalism at the Rancho Bernardo Journal as a Reporter. She remained single for 10 years and worked in various capacities as a Freelance Reporter for the Vista Morning Press, the Associated Press, County New Service, The San Diego Union-TribuneThe San Diego Union-Tribune
-Predecessors:The predecessor newspapers of the Union-Tribune were:* San Diego Sun, founded 1861 and merged with the Evening Tribune in 1939.* San Diego Union, founded October 10, 1868.* Evening Tribune, founded December 2, 1895.-Ownership:...
and several other newspapers and wire services in the region.
In June 1990, she traveled to Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
and married Craig George Michael Evers, aka Mars Bonfire
Mars Bonfire
Dennis Edmonton , also known by the stage name Mars Bonfire, is a Canadian rock musician and songwriter, best known for writing the hit song "Born to Be Wild" for Steppenwolf....
in a Buddhist ceremony at Big Buddha Beach, Koh Samui, Thailand. However, the couple never registered their marriage with American authorities. Her lawyer said, "At best, they were blessed by Buddhist monks." Devereaux left that marriage in February 1998 and relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
. She remained single another 10 years until she married, Thomas William Devereaux, on April 26, 2008 at Dog's Beach in San Diego. Devereaux had no children.
She currently lives with her husband, Tom, in Desert Hot Springs, CA with their 11-year-old Pug
Pug
The pug is a "toy" breed of dog with a wrinkly, short-muzzled face, and curled tail. The breed has a fine, glossy coat that comes in a variety of colors, and a compact square body with well-developed muscle. They have been described as multum in parvo , referring to the pug's personality and...
dog, Ray, who is the subject of her writings entitled, Travels With Ray.
Early Childhood
Devereaux was born on July 1, 1955 at the Fort Seward Air Force Base Infirmary at 12:13 a.m., as Jacqueline Elaine Glodfelter. The spelling of Glodfelter is actually a colonial-time misspelling of the family name Glattfelder. The family name has been traced back to the 1500s in Europe to a village located approximately 10 kilometers north of Zurich, Switzerland named Glattfelden. Devereaux's father was John Ellsworth Glodfelter Sr., born on May 14, 1929 and raised in Berwick, PA by his mother Elva Remley Glodfelter and his grandmother. During World War II, like many young men of his era, her father, nicknamed Jack, tried to join the military at the age of 15 by forging his mother's signature. Jack's forgery was discovered and he was sent home from boot camp. Eventually, after numerous attempts to join the war effort, his mother finally did sign the papers and he officially joined the Marines lying again on his application saying he was born in 1928, instead of 1929. That one year lie followed him for life. Her father eventually served in all four branches of the military - Marines, Air Force, Army and Navy - from 1946 to 1960. Her mother, Helen L. Tarapchak, was born January 18, 1931 in Hazelton, PA and began her career as a seamstress at the age of 15 working in the garmet factories of the Pocono Mountains. Helen later worked for more than 20 years as a costume designer and wardrobe handler for numerous stage shows along the famous Las Vegas Strip.Devereaux was the third of six children with two older brothers (John Ellsworth Jr. and James Ellwood), two younger sisters (Janice Ellen and Jaye Elva) and one younger brother (Jeffrey Erick). Her family traveled and relocated often, forcing Devereaux to attend numerous schools throughout her childhood. She ran away from home in June 1972 at the age of 16 and briefly lived with an aunt an uncle in Scranton, PA until internal domestic strife within the family forced her out on her own. She graduated from Dunmore High School in 1973 and received a scholorship to attend the University of Scranton as a Pre-Med major. During that educational experience, she on a whim, entered a talent contest and won first place as a solo-singer and guitar player. However, she abandoned those early efforts in music to pursue a college education working waitressing jobs until she graduated in 1984 earning a bachelor's degree in Literature and Writing. Immediately upon graduation, she landed a job as a Reporter for the Rancho Bernardo Journal and dedicated her life to a writing career.