Jennifer Bjorhus has covered some of Minnesota’s biggest headlines over the course of her 30-year career as a journalist, but she was most proud of her investigative work that brought about change.

In her 16 years at the Star Tribune, she covered breaking news — from being part of a team that broke the state’s largest fraud scheme involving businessman Tom Petters in the early 2000s to covering the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in 2020, for which the paper won a Pulitzer Prize. But deep stories like the 2018 series “Denied Justice,” which examined how Minnesota’s criminal justice system fails victims of rape and sexual assault and for which she was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist, stuck in her mind.

“She’s one of the giants of Minnesota journalism who never drew attention to herself,” said James Shiffer, her editor for much of the last decade. “You knew when she wrote a story, it was bulletproof. She really got the truth out there.”

Bjorhus, 59, of St. Paul, died Aug. 9 after a nine-month battle with glioblastoma.

Jennifer Ann Bjorhus was born in Litchfield and grew up there as the youngest of three girls. It was clear from an early age that she was inquisitive and curious about the world; she would explore the neighboring swamp or ride her bike around town, said her sister Kari Bjorhus. Her kindergarten even threatened to kick her out once because she refused to take a nap.

“It was so typical of Jenny, not wanting to miss anything,” she said. “She didn’t have time for a nap.”

She attended Carleton College in Northfield, where she learned Hindi and decided to study linguistics. After college, she worked at a yarn co-op and as a chauffeur for Mickey Mouse characters before getting her master’s degree at the University of California, Berkeley, where she decided to pursue journalism. She wanted to make a difference and had long been an excellent writer, her friends and family said.

“She really felt that journalism was her calling,” said Kari Bjorhus.