• Editor's note: This is the first of a 10-part series of articles looking back at the Geneva newsmakers of 2012. The No. 1 newsmaker will be Geneva Patch's "Person of the Year."

Time magazine has its "Person of the Year." Now, Geneva Patch starts our own hyper-local equivalent. In this series, we'll count down from 10 to 1, naming the folks—from saints to sinners—who made the news so interesting during the past year.

The first on our list is the temporary Genevan, Jenny McCarthy.

The rumors of the actress and model's summertime stay in Geneva started in June and went symbolically hand in hand with other media reports about her summer romance with Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher. McCarthy told zeenews.com in June that she was pretty darned close to being in love with good old No. 54, who was going through some interesting times himself, with reported overseas knee surgery and eventually a late start to training camp. 

Twitter posts and Facebook references were made of sightings and friendly encounters with McCarthy, from Bien Trucha to Atwater's and Ace Hardware.

Genevans were mostly good sports, but of course some Patch readers were critical of all the to-do. 

In the end, Jenny and Brian ended up going their separate ways, and McCarthy left the friendly confines of our fair city. But we'll always remember her summer stay.

And for Jenny and Brian, well, they'll always have Geneva.

The Series

• Geneva Newsmakers of 2012—No. 10: Jenny McCarthy
• Geneva Newsmakers of 2012—No. 9: Pam Broviak
• Geneva Newsmakers of 2012—No. 8: Todd Searcy
• Geneva Newsmakers of 2012—No. 7: Steve LeMaire
• Geneva Newsmakers of 2012—No. 6: Kevin Burns
• Geneva Newsmakers of 2012—No. 5: Nicole Wiesner
• Geneva Newsmakers Countdown 2012—No. 4: Joe Stanton
• Geneva Newsmakers Countdown 2012—No. 3: Bob McQuillan
• Geneva Newsmakers Countdown 2012—No. 2: Carol Young
• Geneva Patch Person of the Year 2012: Mark Grosso

Related Articles

• Jenny McCarthy Putting Down Roots in Chicago
• Are Jenny McCarthy and Brian Urlacher Temporary Genevans?
• More Urlacher-McCarthy Sightings in Geneva
• I Don't Wanna Hear Another Thing about 'Brienny'!
• Sad to Say, McCarthy-Urlacher Calling It Quits; No News on Whether Jenny Will Stay in Geneva

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