HONORING JANE HEALY FOR A LIFETIME OF CONTRIBUTIONS TO CENTRAL FLORIDA

On 2026-08-31, Representative Darren Soto (D-FL-9) delivered a floor speech titled "HONORING JANE HEALY FOR A LIFETIME OF CONTRIBUTIONS TO CENTRAL FLORIDA" in the House.

HONORING JANE HEALY FOR A LIFETIME OF CONTRIBUTIONS TO CENTRAL FLORIDA

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 137 (Monday, August 31, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 137 (Monday, August 31, 2026)] [Extensions of Remarks] [Page E825] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] HONORING JANE HEALY FOR A LIFETIME OF CONTRIBUTIONS TO CENTRAL FLORIDA ______ HON. DARREN SOTO of florida in the house of representatives Monday, August 31, 2026 Mr. SOTO. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Jane Healy, a D.C. native, former editorial page editor of the Orlando Sentinel, and the newspaper's first Pulitzer Prize winner, who died of a blood disorder on May 15, 2026, at the age of 77. She was a devoted mother to her two sons, Randall and Kevin; mother- in-law to Kevin's wife, Emily; grandmother to their son, Teddy, and to Randall's children, Elizabeth (plus husband Alex and great- grandchildren, Zayden and Leighten), grandmother to Taylor (plus fiance, Spencer) and grandson, RJ; twin sister to Monica and sister to Kevin, Kathleen (all live in D.C.), and the late Julie; and sister-in- law to Monica's husband, George Hager; and ultimately, close friends with her ex-husband, Jim Clark. After attending Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School and graduating from the University of Maryland in 1971, she got a job at the Orlando Sentinel after her job as a part-time reporter for the New York Daily News' Washington bureau. Healy began as a metro reporter at the Sentinel and was promoted to the editorial board in 1981. She rose to editorial page editor in 1985, the same year she was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her ``Florida's Shame'' editorial series, which exposed politicians who gave in to aggressive developers destroying the environment. The series continued, and in 1988 it won Healy the Pulitzer in editorial writing, the Sentinel's first Pulitzer. She was again a Pulitzer finalist for the ongoing series in 2007. In 1994, Healy became the Sentinel's managing editor, supervising a newsroom of nearly 400 staffers. In 2001, she returned to oversee the editorial pages and was named vice president of the Sentinel. In 2008, she retired from the Sentinel, but she continued to write a Sunday political column until 2010. Throughout much of her career, Healy was a significant force in journalism at the University of Maryland. She was a member and later chair of Merrill College's Board of Visitors and performed the same roles at Maryland's Knight Center for Specialized Journalism. She was named to the University of Maryland Distinguished Alumni in 2003, and to the university's Hall of Fame in 2022. ____________________