St. Louis Public Radio journalists were there for the biggest stories of 2019. Whether it was St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger's fall from power under federal corruption charges; the St. Louis Blues first Stanley Cup win; or the protests over Missouri passing one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.
We also witnessed many quiet moments of personal struggle, celebration, courage and discovery in our community.
Staff photojournalist Carolina Hidalgo shared her favorite photos from the moments that we'll remember from 2019.
MORE: Take a look back at the year with our Best of 2019 story concierge — our most memorable stories of 2019 according to our readers and reporters.
See also: Our favorite photos from 2018. And, our 2017 favorites.
Danny Tobben of Washington, Missouri, celebrates after chugging beer from a “Stanley Cup” made of beer cans and tape during the Blues championship parade. Tens of thousands of St. Louis Blues fans gathered downtown in June to watch their team celebrate its first Stanley Cup victory.
Amanda McCleary, 33, celebrates earning her GED alongside fellow members of the MERS Goodwill Excel Center’s first graduating class in May. McCleary, who clutched her diploma and a bouquet in one hand as she moved her tassel from right to left with the other, said it meant “everything in the fact that my children are watching me walk across the stage; it just was the icing on the cake.”
Friends Najma Sidiqi (center left) and Asmae Bouziane (center right) laugh backstage before the start of the Modest Muslim Women's Fashion Show at the Sheldon Concert Hall and Art Galleries in April. The show, organized by Mojda Sidiqi, featured various types of “modest wear” — a style of clothing for which demand is growing worldwide.
Eight-year-old Angelina and her mother, Menishia, ride a bus together early this year. Angelina is one of more than 30,600 homeless children in Missouri. Education law requires schools to provide homeless students with transportation, but because there’s little predictability in where she’ll sleep, the school can’t organize a taxi to pick Angelina up every day. Instead, the school district provides the family with bus passes.
Tammy Riley poses for a photo with her granddaughter, Frankii, who never met her father. Frank Sessions was shot and killed before she was born. Riley and other grieving mothers have found hope and healing by connecting with each other. But they say mourning a loved one lost to gun violence never goes away.
Ngone Seck practices the flute in her dorm room at Washington University. The Riverview Gardens valedictorian and musically talented engineering major received a full scholarship to Wash U but struggled with costly dental problems during her first year there. Seck’s dilemma illustrates the unique personal responsibilities facing many first-generation, low-income students.
A group of African painted dog puppies chew on a piece of wood thrown into their enclosure by a keeper at the Endangered Wolf Center in Eureka. The center’s first litter of African painted dog puppies was born early this year. Researchers in the U.S. and Zimbabwe have been trying to breed the dogs and study their behaviors to understand how to raise their populations.
Javier Chacon positions a brick during the regional Bricklayer 500 competition in Bridgeton, Missouri. Chacon joined other local masons for the competition, which had a deceptively simple goal: build the largest brick wall in an hour. But in this competition, only the walls with the fewest possible errors have a chance of winning. Even a small mistake, like a crooked brick, translates to points lost.
Workers with United Auto Workers Local 2250 stand outside the Wentzville General Motors plant in October, a month after first going on strike. The following day, the UAW announced a tentative agreement with GM.
Marilyn Leistner, the last mayor of Times Beach, stands atop a grass-covered mound, the size of four football fields, where the remains of her town are buried. “Everything that was near and dear to the people in this community. All the houses and the city equipment. Everything that they didn't take with them that was left in their homes is buried here,” she said. The “town mound” isn’t in the brochures, but it is the most unusual landmark at Route 66 State Park, which opened 20 years ago on the site of Times Beach.
A little blue heron picks a fight with two great egrets in the trees of a Central West End neighborhood, where about 237 nests’ worth of migratory birds took up residence over the summer.
Juliana Hertel and Grace Hardison demonstrate against abortion restrictions during a Planned Parenthood rally outside the Wainwright State Office Building in downtown St. Louis in May.
Michael Brown Sr. congratulates Fran Griffin on her election to Ferguson’s city council. The activist and mother of three attended her first council meeting exactly one month after Michael Brown Jr. was killed by a Ferguson police officer. “I want to show people that we can have hope that things will change,” Griffin said. “I get asked a lot — ‘Why do you have so much hope?’ And it’s because I see the potential in us when we work collectively.”
Smino performs for a sold-out crowd at The Pageant during his fourth annual Kribmas concert. The St. Louis native, recording artist and founder of the Zerø Fatigue collective hosts the concert to raise money to give back to his community.
MORE: Take a look back at the year with our Best of 2019 story concierge — our most memorable stories of 2019 according to our readers and reporters.
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