Sinise, Jerry

Born July 8, 1926 in Harvey, Illinois, Jerry Sinise joined the Navy and served as a radioman from 1944-1946. He graduated from Phillips University in Enid, Oklahoma in 1950 and returned to the Navy from 1951-1952 when he served as a radio operator and journalist aboard the USS McCoy Reynolds. Sinise continued his career as a journalist at Phillips University where he served as press relations director from 1950-1951. He ventured away from journalism in 1953 when he worked in the insurance industry. Sinise remained with insurance until 1961 but the desire to write soon moved him back into journalism. From 1961-1966 Sinise was a feature writer and farm editor for the "Amarillo Daily News". In March 1969 he began his career at the "Grain Producers News", where he served as editor for twelve years. While working with the "Grain Producers News", Sinise was required to take all the necessary photographs for each edition of the magazine. Using this knowledge, he would produce two award winning annual reports. Sinise continued his work in journalism by writing for a variety of magazines including, "The Insider", "Calf News", the "Signal", and "Southwest Heritage", which he owned. Along with his work in magazines, Sinise intensely researched materials for seven books. Two of his literary creations focused on well known western historical figures, "Pink Higgins, The Reluctant Gunfighter and Other Tales of the Panhandle", 1973 and "George Washington Arrington, Civil War Spy, Texas Ranger, Sheriff and Rancher", 1978. Sinise served as a ghost writer for the books, "The Hon. James Nathan Browning (1850-1921), published in 1969 and "Three Questions-Three Answers", published in 1967. During his career from 1961-1989, Sinise wrote over 4,000 articles for a number of magazines, wrote two screenplays, and owned two newspapers. In 1989 he sold the last of his newspapers, the "Limelight" and moved to Dallas, Texas where he became technical editor for the Arco Oil & Gas Company. Sinise would remain with Arco until his death on March 30, 1996.