Update to "Jean Seberg A Life On The Edge" by Sara Jordan

Driving through the small city of Marshalltown, IA known as "The Pittsburgh of the Midwest" one would hardly believe that in 1956 one of it's citizen became a movie star. Her name was Jean Seberg, daughter of Ed and Dorothy who were highly regarded citizens in the community. They ran a local pharmacy, attended church, and had solid Midwestern beliefs.

Jean was discovered by famed director Otto Preminger at 18 years old and cast as Joan of Arc in his biopic. How coincidental to have portrayed a woman who was persecuted and ultimately died for her beliefs. Seberg lived her life as a martyr for equality, but was victimized and harassed by those she tried to help and the authorities who resented her involvement with civil rights. Jean was driven to suicide attempts and ultimately died of a drug overdose in 1979. She was found wedged under the front seat of her car, (on the floor of the back), on a side street in Paris. Although officially ruled a suicide, (as a note was found) many still suspect a third party was involved, at least with the disposing her body. No one can deny the mental and emotional abuse she suffered at the hands of the FBI. Jean had plans to make more films in Europe and anticipated the approaching visit of American relatives. Seberg had a romanticized view of death, and would never have wanted to be found dead in such an unglamorous and undignified way. Her involvement with the Black Panther Party garnered her a 320 page FBI file and 24 hour surveillance. She even believed that director J. Edgar Hoover had informants living in Marshalltown who kept tabs on her family while Jean herself was followed abroad.

After the publication of my article "Jean Seberg A Life On The Edge" I made a pilgrimage to Marshalltown. I saw the Orpheum Theater where young Jean flocked to as a child and where her film "Saint Joan" received it's world premiere. The Seberg pharmacy has changed hands several times and is now called Delusions tattoo parlor. I jaunted over to the Tremont Inn on Main where I met the co-owner. She told me, to my surprise, that she had gone to school with Jean's brother David, and recounted how he had been killed in a car accident senior year.

When Jean's mother passed away in 1997 the Seberg family home on 1510 Kalsem Blvd sold to an eccentric woman who had the trees in the front yard cut down. She claimed there were people lurking behind them. Maybe she was right. The current owners, Lawrence and Annamae Wilson, welcome fans and admirers to their home, including myself. Mrs. Wilson was home gardening when I arrived. She took me to the backyard where she lovingly maintains the garden, showing me the rosebush Jean sent her mother from Paris many years ago. Mrs. Wilson told me people today still ask her if she has the bush and they tell her to never get rid of it. Then I was kindly allowed inside the quaint home. It was hard to believe that 6 people once lived inside and crowded around a table in the narrow dining room. I glanced in the upstairs bedrooms, one that had once been Jean's, the living room, and the kitchen. I placed a copy of the magazine on the kitchen table open to my story. I found it to be rather symbolic that the article I had spent months preparing was now on a table in the subject's home.

But what made the Jean Seberg saga come full-circle for me was paying a visit to Riverside Cemetery. With no clue where to begin looking for Jean's infant daughter, brother, and parents, (as the directory office was closed), an assistant and myself split up to look for the graves on foot. It was over 80 degrees out and the grounds were damp from the recent flooding in the area. We worked our way East to West from the main entrance, although I had a nagging suspicion I needed to just keep heading to the left side of the grounds. With 12 mosquito bites I worked my way to an exit, saddened I hadn't found the Seberg plot. I asked out loud for guidance in finding the graves feeling maybe I would get lead in the right direction. As we approached a left hand exit I spotted the Seberg plot and ran full speed. I came upon her mother Dorothy, her father Edward, and then David. I knew the baby Jean lost was buried close by and soon spotted the tiny headstone. There she was. The innocent casualty of a nation of hatred and bigotry. Nina Hart Gary -- Aug 23-25 1970. The little girl Seberg had lost due to the FBI smear campaign which claimed falsely that the baby's father was a Black Panther and not Romain Gary. I'm glad Jean did right by her child. She named her Nina, after Romain's mother, and Hart after her ancestor John Hart, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

That youthful glimmer in Jean's eyes vanished after Nina's death, and I believe that a part of Jean died alongside that child as she was never the same again. Seberg aged drastically and maintained a residence oversees only traveling to the States to visit her parents, never making another American film. Although Romain and their son Diego had Jean buried in France, I feel she is never far from her daughter or Marshalltown. Jean Seberg also lives on with those who hold tightly to the memories of how one ambitious girl from Iowa lived a storied life that not even a Hollywood dream team could have ever imagined.