Ina Jaffe, an NPR correspondent for more than 36 years, died Thursday after living with metastic breast cancer for years. She was 75.
Jaffe reported on her cancer diagnosis and treatment in a 2021 piece for NPR. At the time, Jaffe was a national correspondent whose coverage focused on the aging of America.
“Those who knew and worked with Ina undoubtedly remember a person who brought a straightforward, compassionate approach to her work, whether covering veterans’ housing, violence at California mental health hospitals or the difficulties in nursing home care caused by COVID-19,” said NPR SVP and Editor in Chief Edith Chapin in a note to staff.
An obituary from NPR pointed to an influential series of reports by Jaffe from 2011 about businesses leasing part of the Veterans Administration’s West Los Angeles Medical Center campus. The land was intended to house homeless veterans, but the businesses did not serve veterans.
“They built housing in part because of the attention … drawn to the Veterans Administration because of the work that Ina did,” said Sonari Glinton, who sat near Jaffe at NPR West in California.
Jaffe was an actor before joining the network in 1985, according to NPR’s obituary.
“She knew that stories were real, as with the theater about putting on a show,” said former NPR correspondent Jacki Lyden in the obituary. “Ina was an actor, and NPR was the stage, and she rang the curtain down all the way to becoming the aging correspondent.”
Jaffe is survived by her husband, Lenny Kleinfeld.