Jean “Jeannie” Holmes Finlayson, a resident of the Golden Triangle area of Norwich, was born in remote southern Illinois where the mid-west borders the deep south.

She attended the University of Missouri School of Journalism, where she won a scholarship and a major academic award. Her contemporaries there included PBS news anchor, Jim Lehrer.

After graduating in 1956, she continued to work in journalism while living on a Texas farm so remote that she had to learn to fly a single-seater aircraft to get to the nearest town.

In 1958, she relocated to the UK where she taught English to American service personnel at air bases across East Anglia.

During this period, she was one of a few American tourists to visit the Soviet Union and travelled all over, including to the central Asian republics.

Jean and Vic during the........

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