Hannah Beausang, former North Bay journalist, dies at 30

As a brash 23-year-old with a penchant for storytelling, Hannah Beausang strode into the Petaluma Argus-Courier newsroom in December 2015 to claim a position as features editor.

Her hard work and talent for writing quickly caught the attention of senior editors and set her on course to a top reporting job at The Press Democrat within three years.

Beausang, an award-winning Northern California journalist and community advocate whose wanderlust drove her to explore Latin America, died Oct. 6. She was 30.

Authorities in San Diego, where she was last seen, consider her death a suicide, according to her mother, Sandy Beausang. Hannah had suffered from unspecified mental illness and physical pain for several years before her death, her mother said.

Born in Placerville on April 27, 1992, the only child of Tom and Sandy Beausang, she grew up on an acre of land in the rural Sierra Nevada foothill community of Shingle Springs.

“She was very kind and considerate, a very generous soul,” Sandy Beausang said. “She was also very intense and fiercely independent.”

She loved horseback riding, gymnastics and water skiing on Folsom Lake, her mother said.

After high school, Beausang spent two years at Folsom Lake College before transferring to San Diego State University, where she developed a passion for journalism.

“She loved to write. She liked to be able to tell the truth,” Sandy Beausang said. “She loved to talk to people, and she hated bullies.”

While pursuing a journalism degree, Beausang became news editor of the campus newspaper, the Daily Aztec and completed an internship with the San Diego Union-Tribune. Luke Henning, a fellow journalism student, also worked with Beausang at the student paper. He stayed friends with her over the next 10 years and the two had been dating for the past year.

Henning, who works for a music and art nonprofit in San Diego, said that she talked about moving back to San Diego to be closer to him. He said the last text message he received from her on the night she died read: “Just know that I love you.”

“I haven’t met a lot of people like her,” Henning said. “She would drop everything for someone. I have seen her literally take her shoes off and give them to someone. She had this habit of pouring herself into what others needed.”

Upon graduation in 2014, she landed her first newspaper job with the Tiburon Ark covering public safety.

After winning several California News Publishers Association awards at the Ark, she joined the Argus-Courier, first as features editor and later as news editor, covering Petaluma’s most important issues. At the Argus-Courier, she won top CNPA honors for features writing, breaking news, agricultural reporting and coverage of local government.

Beausang endeared herself to the newsroom, offering to help where needed and getting to know co-workers on a personal level, according to former colleagues. When Argus-Courier sports editor John Jackson lost his house in the 2017 Tubbs Fire, she raised money to help him buy new clothes, including a Casa Grande High School warmup jacket, which he still proudly wears.

“She was a unique and special person,” Jackson said. “She livened up any room that she walked into, and she was also a very good reporter.”

During the 2017 wildfires, Beausang pitched in at The Press Democrat, driving the length of the still-smoldering Sonoma Valley to talk to survivors while contributing to the newspaper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage.

Her mother said that while Beausang felt it was important to witness trauma, the experience left her scarred.

“She is very empathetic,” Sandy Beausang said. “When she covered the fires, that was too much pain at one time. She picks up everyone’s energy and instead of being able to let it go, she soaks it up like a sponge.”

The Press Democrat noticed her talent and hired her in May 2018 as a general assignment reporter. Within a few months, she earned the county government and politics beat, a top reporting job at the paper.

“Hannah was a vibrant member of our newsrooms,” Brett Wilkison, The Press Democrat’s deputy editor, said in an email. “She had an infectious laugh and an insatiable curiosity that fueled both her journalism and her travels. She touched all who worked with her and she kept many close friends among our ranks and in our community.”

She was drawn to adventure, Sandy Beausang said.

She tried sky diving, scuba diving, zip lining, loved backpacking and was learning to rock climb. In 2019, she was overcome by an urge to see the world and set off for Guatemala, where she learned Spanish and taught English. She explored much of Central America and Mexico, and she had plans to travel to Thailand until the pandemic hit in 2020.

Moving back to the U.S., Beausang resettled in Sacramento, first working for a homelessness advocacy organization and most recently as a communications specialist for Accion Opportunity Fund, a nonprofit that supports entrepreneurs who are women, people of color or immigrants.

Tom Beausang said that his daughter touched many lives in her 30 years.

“She was like an old soul,” he said. “So many people loved her, it’s like an avalanche.”

Hannah Beausang is survived by her parents, Tom and Sandy Beausang, of Shingle Springs. A memorial for her will be held Oct. 16 from 5 to 7 p.m. at Sutter’s Landing, 20 28th St., in Sacramento.

Matt Brown is a former editor of the Petaluma Argus-Courier.