Photo of Laura Beth Dean. (Copyright 2025 by WSLS 10 – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
BLACKSBURG, Va. \u2013 Laura Beth Dean, a registered nurse at Warm Hearth Village in Blacksburg, won multiple awards for her children\u2019s book, \u201cGeorgia Jipp: Blizzard Pilot!\u201d<\/p>\n
The book, illustrated by Jeanne Bowman, chronicles the life of Georgia Jipp, a pilot who flew over 150 mercy missions for the American Red Cross during the South Dakota blizzard of 1949.<\/p>\n
The book has won the following awards:<\/p>\n
2025 Spur Award<\/p>\n
2025 WILLA Literary Award<\/p>\n
Finalist \u2013 Will Rogers Medallion Award<\/p>\n
Bronze Medal \u2013 2024 Moonbeam Children\u2019s Book Awards<\/p>\n
\u201cI am in awe and so humbled this book has garnered four awards. I never would have imagined such an incredible reception. Several years ago, I discovered Georgia Jipp in a book about the terrible blizzards of 1949, and was captivated by this twenty-two\u2013year-old pilot\u2019s bravery. Only one other book mentioned her, so I resolved to research and write her story. I am delighted young Georgia Jipp now has her well-deserved place in history. It gives me such joy to inspire children through my books.”<\/p>\n
Laura Beth Dean, author<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 by WSLS 10 – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo of Laura Beth Dean. (Copyright 2025 by WSLS 10 – All rights reserved.) BLACKSBURG, Va. \u2013 Laura…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[30077,288,30079,2458,93,61,60,30078],"class_list":{"0":"post-39423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-blacksburg","9":"tag-books","10":"tag-childrens-book","11":"tag-community","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-nurse"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}