Early on the morning of July 25, 1987, a 37-year-old farmer and DFL political activist named Dick Hanson became the 125th Minnesotan to die of AIDS.
Pioneer Press reporter Jacqui Banaszynski chronicled the last months of his life in her Pulitzer Prize-winning series “AIDS in the Heartland.” You can read all three installments here:
- AIDS in the Heartland: Chapter I
- AIDS in the Heartland: Chapter II
- AIDS in the Heartland: Chapter III
Banaszynski recounted in heartrending detail the hardships Hanson and his partner faced as gay men living with this little-understood disease in rural Minnesota.
In a note to readers, then-editor Deborah Howell called it “one of the most important projects this newspaper has ever done.”
But reaction to the series was deeply divided. While many readers praised its honest and compassionate portrayal of life with AIDS, others were outraged that the newspaper would profile a homosexual couple.
“The revulsion and fear around HIV and gays were so strong,” Banaszynski said. “The hateful mail we got was astonishing.”
But her efforts were rewarded the following spring when she received the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing.
Banaszynski had been covering gay-rights issues at the Pioneer Press for a couple of years, when the death of movie star Rock Hudson forced the growing AIDS epidemic into the public consciousness.
In an effort to humanize the people afflicted by this terrifying new illness, Banaszynski and her editors decided to follow the story of an AIDS patient from diagnosis to death.
Banaszynski and photographer Jean Pieri spent nearly a year searching for a subject their readers could relate to. Hanson, a farmer who was born and raised in Glenwood, turned out to be ideal.
He and his partner, Bert Henningson, agreed to let Banaszynski and Pieri into their lives with very few strings attached.
Banaszynski logged more than 300 hours of reporting over the course of the series and took as much as two weeks to write each piece.
The first of three installments chronicled Hanson’s April 1986 diagnosis and his adjustment to life with the disease. The second dealt with the stigma attached to homosexuality and AIDS at the time. The third and final piece covered Hanson’s death and its effect on his loved ones.
Banaszynski and her editors agonized over how much of Hanson and Henningson’s personal lives — especially their sexuality — should be included in the series. One particularly intense discussion was over a photo of Henningson leaning over Hanson’s hospital bed to kiss him hello just days before Hanson’s death.
While Banaszynski and Pieri argued for the photo’s inclusion, Howell and other editors feared it would alienate readers who might otherwise be drawn into the story. In the end, Banaszynski and Pieri were overruled.
About 70 percent of the reader response to the first installment, which ran in June 1987, was negative, Banaszynski estimates. However, by the time the last installment ran three months later, the opposite was true — reader response was about 70 percent positive.
The Pulitzer board was unequivocal in its praise of the series. The board’s secretary noted “there wasn’t an awful lot of debate” among the judges.
“There was pretty general agreement from the start that it was the winner in the feature category,” he said.
Now a professor at the University of Missouri school of journalism, Banaszynski is still asked to speak about “AIDS in the Heartland,” which is regarded as a groundbreaking work in coverage of the HIV/AIDS crisis.