Jean Sprain Wilson, 86, Dies; Journalist Interviewed Social Elites of the 50s, 60s

Jean Sprain Wilson, 86, an Associated Press reporter who later became a producer for NBC News, died July 12 at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda of cardiac arrest. She had been a Rockville resident since the mid-1990s.

Ms. Wilson worked at NBC from 1973 until the mid-1980s. She produced documentary specials, including "Back to Bataan: The Forgotten Hell," about the Bataan Death March in the Philippines during World War II. About 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war captured by the Japanese were marched into prison camps in 1942 under horrendous conditions; many were killed or died along the way. Earlier, as a feature writer for the Associated Press in New York from 1956 until 1971, Ms. Wilson covered the social world of the jet set, including doing interviews with Princess Grace of Monaco and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, among others.

She also interviewed Charles Manson, a cult leader who conspired to kill actress Sharon Tate and others near Los Angeles in 1969. Because of her interview, Ms. Wilson received a hate letter from Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a former member of the Manson Family, who was convicted of attempting to assassinate President Gerald R. Ford in 1975.

Gladys Jean Sprain, a native of Hamilton, Ohio, received a bachelor's degree in journalism from Ohio State University in 1944. During her senior year, she became the first female editor of the school's newspaper and was appointed the first woman sports editor, according to her family.

Early in her career, she worked at the Detroit Free Press, and in the mid-1940s became the women's editor of the now-defunct Miami Daily News. She led a team of journalists into the Soviet Union to interview Nina Khrushcheva, wife of Nikita Khrushchev, then the premier of the Soviet Union.

Her husband of 10 years, Donald Wilson, died in 1956. Her marriage to David Gould ended in divorce.

Survivors include two children from her first marriage, Donna Wilson of Cayo District, Belize, and Hoke Wilson of Rockville; and three grandchildren.

-- Lauren Wiseman