Cornelia de Bruin

I report and explain San Juan County's Business, Economics, Health and County news.

When 15-year-old Cornelia de Bruin challenged Las Vegas Review Journal Editor Don Digilio about the fairness of his coverage of an upcoming Beatles concert in 1964, she had no idea that she was launching what's become a decades-long career.

Digilio had written several editorials expressing his (low) opinion of the Beatles' music, most likely to sell newspapers in advance of the concert — part of the English band's second tour through the U.S. His diatribes resulted in massive amounts of hate mail from Las Vegas teenagers, and de Bruin's challenge.

The result was de Bruin's helping to cover the concert (for an astounding $15 fee) and the beginning of a career she hasn't quit yet.

When she's not meeting the next deadline — always, the next deadline — de Bruin is all about music. From her folk- and bluegrass-singing and picking roots, she has expanded into Balkan singing. She also drums with a group in Albuquerque. The

shortest person on our staff is a closet opera aficionado.

She's also sailed from Hawaii to New Zealand, and has worked as an undocumented farm laborer.