LOS ANGELES — Jody Jacobs, a former Women’s Wear Daily West Coast fashion editor and society editor of The Los Angeles Times, died Dec. 2 of congestive heart failure at her home in Atascadero, Calif., according to her husband, Bernard Leason. She was 82.
Jacobs was best known and revered for her tenure at the the L.A. Times between 1971 and 1985, an era when the sprawl of L.A. was beginning to undergo changes socially, culturally and politically. Through her columns, she navigated a bustling scene of black-tie galas and champagne lunches inhabited by the city’s new social set, along with Hollywood royalty such as Cary Grant and Ann Miller; the city’s first black mayor, Tom Bradley, and his wife, Ethel, and the Reagans en route to the White House.
Before the Times, Jacobs reported on fashion and society — including celebrity — for WWD. She started at the paper in 1957 in L.A. reporting on sportswear, then worked for it in the New York headquarters and the London bureau as associate fashion editor. Lady Bird Johnson, Sir Ralph Richardson, Vanessa Redgrave and Faye Dunaway were among the personalities she profiled for WWD.
“I remember Jody always worked really hard to get into the right frame of mind to report on a story,” Sylvia Sheppard, Jacobs’ former editor at WWD in L.A., recalled Friday. She hired Jacobs away from the California Apparel News; later, when Sheppard left in the mid-Sixties, Jacobs would assume her title as West Coast fashion editor of WWD.
“The morning she was going to interview Barbra Streisand, a major story because it was Streisand’s first big performance in L.A., Jody went on a long walk on the beach to focus her thoughts. She always prepared well for her interviews. Of course, she did a marvelous job on the story. Everybody loved Jody and loved the way she wrote,” Sheppard said.
Jacobs majored in journalism at Hunter College in New York City. She had relocated there with her family at age six from her native Margarita, Venezuela, where she was born Josephine Caceres in 1922.
In 1988, Jacobs wrote “The Right Circles,” a novel published about a young woman and her not-always-pleasant adventures on the social scene.
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After her marriage ended to Russell Lee Jacobs, she wed Leason in 1972. She is survived by him; her daughter with Jacobs, Jessica Salet; three grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
Contributions in Jacobs’ name can be made to the Braille Institute of America, Development Department, 741 North Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, Calif., 90029.