Jere Hammond Warren

By David Smith Soto

My dear friend Jere Warren, artist and journalist, died March 16, 2023 at his home in Lawrenceville, Georgia. He earned a living most of his life as a graphic artist on several newspapers, notably The Miami Herald, but had the soul of a fine art painter. Jere was a United States Marine, a talented artist, and a passionate animal lover. He was 83.

He was a career graphic artist beginning at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper in 1967. He spent several years at the Ft Lauderdale Sun Sentinel. The bulk of his career was with The Miami Herald, where he shared in a Pulitzer Prize for outstanding journalism and eventually retired from there. Along with his many stunningly beautiful paintings in oil and watercolor, he also drew in pencil and charcoal.

Part of his childhood was lived at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. That experience made him a lifelong fan of everything Cuban, politics and art. As a teenager, he planned a trip with his buddies to join Fidel Castro’s revolutionaries in the Sierra Maestra.  Better minds prevailed, and he never made it.  I’ve included below some memories from his colleagues at the Miami Herald.

I met Jere as The Herald was preparing to launch Business Monday, the first business weekly in a metropolitan daily. It was my job to work with Jere to design the front page.  Jere’s professionalism always dispelled any fear that emanated from the blank page.

But my fondest memory from those days is personal.  I was hit with a severe case of the flu that had me bedridden for weeks.  Then Jere showed up with a jar of raw honey.  He had no doubts that raw honey would fix me up, and it did.

He is survived by his three children, Patrick, Lainie Warren, and Kim Kelly, and his granddaughters, Lindsay Resto and Kyra Warren.

A simple graveside service will be held at the beautiful Georgia National Veterans Cemetery in Canton, Georgia, on Friday, March 24, from 1-1:30pm.

Check the link on the website below for directions to the cemetery.

https://www.cem.va.gov/cems/nchp/georgia.asp

We ask that in lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Northeast Georgia humane Society. Link below.

https://humanesocietyofnortheastgeorgia.org/donate-now/