I live and work as a reporter for MLive.com in Bay City, Michigan. Founded as a hub for lumber and shipbuilding in the 19th century, the town of about 32,000 is known as the birthplace of Madonna and of a notorious mass murderer named John List. It is also the hometown of Shirlee Ann Miller Fields, a woman who died in Jonestown along with her husband, two children, and more than 900 others.
As the 45th anniversary of the Jonestown tragedy approached last year, I approached my editors with the idea to tell the Peoples Temple story through the lens of its local connection. MLive.com not only gave me the green light, it was incredibly supportive of my efforts throughout my research and writing.
I sifted through census records, newspaper archives, and primary sources recovered from Jonestown and interviewed those who knew Shirlee, both while in Peoples Temple and long before she joined the movement. In the end, my research yielded a multi-part series, tracking Shirlee’s life from childhood in Bay City to her death in the jungles of Guyana.
In publishing it, MLive allowed me to present the story of another of the oft-overlooked multitude who died in Jonestown. Not only does the series restore the awareness that Shirlee and her family existed, but on a more macro level, it shows how far and wide the tendrils spread from the event that claimed nearly 1,000 American lives almost a half-century ago.
– Cole Waterman
The series is republished courtesy of MLive.com. The editors of the Jonestown Institute wish to express our appreciation for its permission to include this collection on our site.
The series:
• Shirlee’s Story: Bay City woman among 918 who died in Jonestown Massacre 45 years ago
• Shirlee’s Story: Bay City woman joins the Rev. Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple
• Bay City woman’s voice, writings echo from Jonestown community in South American jungle
• ‘The language of death was everywhere’ for Michigan woman, family in Jonestown
Cole Waterman ended the series with a reflection on his research:
• What I learned researching life of Bay City woman who died in Jonestown 45 years ago
As the series ended, Waterman’s editor John Hiner added his perspective on what the reporter had accomplished.
Along with the series, Waterman reported on the publication of a book by the sister of another Michigan woman who died in Jonestown.
• Michigan author whose sister, niece died in Jonestown pens harrowing memoir
Six months later, Cole Waterman won an award in the field of Community/Local News from the Society of Professional Journalists Detroit Excellence in Journalism for his work on the series.