Owned The News-Gazette in Champaign for 35 years and became heiress of a family publishing group, an Italian contessa by marriage and one of the most powerful women in the Illinois newspaper industry. Also owned radio stations WDWS-AM and WHMS-FM in Champaign, The Prairie Production Group and direct-mail firm Direct Impressions.
Daughter of publisher and editor David W. Stevick, who persuaded her to annul her presumed first marriage to longtime friend B.H. Rogers, brother of the late movie star Buddy Rogers. According to at least one published report, she briefly was married to mobster Johnny Rosselli before her marriage to Rogers. In any event, she was married at least five times.
She remarried in 1937 to insurance agent and Republican Party official Ralph D. Jones. After a divorce, she married Army Air Forces pilot Lt. Col. William E. Dyess of Texas. He was captured by the Japanese in the Philippines and escaped, only to die in a plane crash in Southern California in 1943. Her fourth marriage, briefly, was to Alton Horton of Los Angeles.
In 1953 she married Michael Chinigo, Albanian war correspondent and Yale alum who also was an Italian count and director of the International News Service in Italy. Associate publisher of The News-Gazette from 1954, he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Rome in 1974. Rosselli was tied to Kennedy-era Castro assassination conspiracies and his body was found in an oil drum floating in a river, so at least three of Marajen Stevick's husbands met violent deaths and at least two of them, Rosselli and Chinigo, had murky ties to the CIA.
Daughter of publisher and editor David W. Stevick, who persuaded her to annul her presumed first marriage to longtime friend B.H. Rogers, brother of the late movie star Buddy Rogers. According to at least one published report, she briefly was married to mobster Johnny Rosselli before her marriage to Rogers. In any event, she was married at least five times.
She remarried in 1937 to insurance agent and Republican Party official Ralph D. Jones. After a divorce, she married Army Air Forces pilot Lt. Col. William E. Dyess of Texas. He was captured by the Japanese in the Philippines and escaped, only to die in a plane crash in Southern California in 1943. Her fourth marriage, briefly, was to Alton Horton of Los Angeles.
In 1953 she married Michael Chinigo, Albanian war correspondent and Yale alum who also was an Italian count and director of the International News Service in Italy. Associate publisher of The News-Gazette from 1954, he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Rome in 1974. Rosselli was tied to Kennedy-era Castro assassination conspiracies and his body was found in an oil drum floating in a river, so at least three of Marajen Stevick's husbands met violent deaths and at least two of them, Rosselli and Chinigo, had murky ties to the CIA.
Owned The News-Gazette in Champaign for 35 years and became heiress of a family publishing group, an Italian contessa by marriage and one of the most powerful women in the Illinois newspaper industry. Also owned radio stations WDWS-AM and WHMS-FM in Champaign, The Prairie Production Group and direct-mail firm Direct Impressions.
Daughter of publisher and editor David W. Stevick, who persuaded her to annul her presumed first marriage to longtime friend B.H. Rogers, brother of the late movie star Buddy Rogers. According to at least one published report, she briefly was married to mobster Johnny Rosselli before her marriage to Rogers. In any event, she was married at least five times.
She remarried in 1937 to insurance agent and Republican Party official Ralph D. Jones. After a divorce, she married Army Air Forces pilot Lt. Col. William E. Dyess of Texas. He was captured by the Japanese in the Philippines and escaped, only to die in a plane crash in Southern California in 1943. Her fourth marriage, briefly, was to Alton Horton of Los Angeles.
In 1953 she married Michael Chinigo, Albanian war correspondent and Yale alum who also was an Italian count and director of the International News Service in Italy. Associate publisher of The News-Gazette from 1954, he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Rome in 1974. Rosselli was tied to Kennedy-era Castro assassination conspiracies and his body was found in an oil drum floating in a river, so at least three of Marajen Stevick's husbands met violent deaths and at least two of them, Rosselli and Chinigo, had murky ties to the CIA.
Daughter of publisher and editor David W. Stevick, who persuaded her to annul her presumed first marriage to longtime friend B.H. Rogers, brother of the late movie star Buddy Rogers. According to at least one published report, she briefly was married to mobster Johnny Rosselli before her marriage to Rogers. In any event, she was married at least five times.
She remarried in 1937 to insurance agent and Republican Party official Ralph D. Jones. After a divorce, she married Army Air Forces pilot Lt. Col. William E. Dyess of Texas. He was captured by the Japanese in the Philippines and escaped, only to die in a plane crash in Southern California in 1943. Her fourth marriage, briefly, was to Alton Horton of Los Angeles.
In 1953 she married Michael Chinigo, Albanian war correspondent and Yale alum who also was an Italian count and director of the International News Service in Italy. Associate publisher of The News-Gazette from 1954, he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Rome in 1974. Rosselli was tied to Kennedy-era Castro assassination conspiracies and his body was found in an oil drum floating in a river, so at least three of Marajen Stevick's husbands met violent deaths and at least two of them, Rosselli and Chinigo, had murky ties to the CIA.
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