War correspondents often draw strength from home. For Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst, “home” traces back to Central Pennsylvania and, through his mother, to Memphis, Tennessee
His father is widely referred to as Jerry in school and community notes, and also as Jed by friends who left memorial messages after his wife’s passing.
His mother, Debbie Lee (Debra Ann) Yingst, spent her early years in Memphis before building a family and community life near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
This article explains where Trey Yingst’s parents are from, what we can confidently document about their backgrounds, and how those places show up in Trey’s story.
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Table of Contents
Where Is Trey Yingst’s Father, Jed “Jerry” Yingst, From?
Central Pennsylvania roots
Multiple community and alumni references identify Trey’s father as Jerry Yingst, a Central Dauphin High School alumnus (Class of 1969).
Those notes place him in the Harrisburg area of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. Alumni posts also refer to Trey by his legal name, Gerald Yingst III, making Jerry/Jed the senior family namesake.
In addition, a first-person feature by Vanity Fair on Trey’s reporting includes a simple but telling line: Trey hadn’t been able to text his dad in Pennsylvania while covering events on October 7.
That detail reinforces the family’s ongoing tie to Pennsylvania as the father’s home base.1
Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles into Ukraine overnight.
As President Trump tries to secure a ceasefire, Russia continues to bomb major Ukrainian cities filled with civilians.
This week, a Russian drone crashed in Poland, a NATO member country.
— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) August 21, 2025
“Jed” vs “Jerry”: clearing up the name
You will see both “Jed” and “Jerry” used for Trey’s father. In formal and alumni contexts he appears as Jerry or Gerald, while memorial condolences for Debbie include warm notes addressed to “Jed, Trey and Aly”, which shows “Jed” being used by friends and community members.
The variation is common in families where a parent and child share the same given name and the elder uses a nickname.2
Bottom line: Trey’s father is Gerald Yingst (often “Jerry”), rooted in Central Pennsylvania, and also affectionately referred to as Jed by people close to the family.
Where Is Trey Yingst’s Mother, Debbie Lee Yingst, From?
Debbie’s obituary states that she graduated from White Station High School, a public school in Memphis, Tennessee. It also mentions that she loved visiting family in Memphis.
Together, those lines place her origin story in Memphis even though her adult life centered in Pennsylvania.
Education and career path
After high school in Memphis, Debbie earned degrees from Beaver College (now Arcadia University) and the University of Tennessee, studying social work.
She later worked as a substitute teacher in the Central Dauphin School District, served as a PTO president, and was active in Ikebana International and the Linglestown Garden Club.
Those details sketch a portrait of a community builder who gave time and care to neighbors and schools in Harrisburg’s Linglestown area.
Pennsylvania, empathy and family life
Debbie passed away on Thanksgiving 2022. Trey memorialized her publicly, describing her empathy and selflessness, and friends wrote to the family including “Jed, Trey and Aly” in condolence messages that also recall Memphis ties.
The combined record reflects a woman from Memphis who made a lasting mark in Central Pennsylvania through education, volunteering, and family life.
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How Their Roots Connect to Trey’s Story
Trey was born in Hershey, Pennsylvania and raised in the Harrisburg area, graduating from Central Dauphin High School before heading to American University in Washington, D.C.
His professional path has been global Ukraine, Gaza, and beyond, but the references to texting his dad in Pennsylvania and the many Harrisburg-area school ties make it clear that Central Pennsylvania remains a central anchor. 3
Memphis influences through his mother
Debbie’s Memphis roots add another American region to Trey’s family story. Memphis is a city with a deep civil rights history, an arts and music culture, and a tradition of community organizing.
While we cannot draw a direct line from that background to specific career choices, the documented emphasis on empathy, teaching, and service in Debbie’s life mirrors qualities often noticed in Trey’s field reporting—persistence, compassion for civilians, and attention to human detail under fire.
That’s interpretive, but consistent with the record of Debbie’s life and how Trey speaks about her. 4
Why These Origins Matter
Knowing where Jerry/Jed and Debbie are from adds context to Trey’s career and public outlook:
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Sense of place: Central Pennsylvania is practical, civic-minded, and tightly networked through schools and local groups. That produces alumni communities that rally around their own. Alumni pages celebrating Trey and referencing his parents are a case in point.
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Family continuity: The use of Gerald across three generations (with nicknames like Jerry and the friends’ Jed) hints at a family that values continuity and identity. That continuity is mirrored in Trey’s repeated returns to Pennsylvania when he is off assignment.
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Service and empathy: Debbie’s Memphis-to-Pennsylvania journey, her study of social work, and her time in public schools speak to empathy in action. Trey’s own tributes to her echo that.
Frequently Asked Questions
1) Is Trey Yingst’s father’s name Jed or Jerry?
Both appear in public references. Alumni posts and formal mentions identify him as Jerry or Gerald, while condolence messages following Debbie’s passing address him as “Jed.”
The simplest explanation is that Jed is an affectionate nickname used by family friends, while Jerry is the more common public nickname for Gerald.
2) Where is Trey Yingst’s father from?
From the Harrisburg/Hershey area of Central Pennsylvania. Alumni pages list him with Central Dauphin High School (Class of ’69), and a 2023 first-person piece by Trey mentions texting his dad in Pennsylvania during coverage.
3) Where is Trey Yingst’s mother from?
Debbie grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, where she attended White Station High School. She later studied at Beaver College and the University of Tennessee and spent much of her adult life in the Harrisburg area of Pennsylvania.
4) Did Trey’s mother live in Pennsylvania?
Yes. Debbie worked as a substitute teacher in the Central Dauphin School District and volunteered locally. She maintained ties to Memphis and traveled to visit family there, but her day-to-day community life was in Central Pennsylvania.
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5) What are the names of Trey’s siblings?
The obituary for Debbie names Aly as Trey’s sibling.
6) Where was Trey born?
Trey was born in Hershey, Pennsylvania, in 1993.
7) Do we know the exact towns or neighborhoods?
The public record consistently points to Harrisburg and nearby communities (Hershey, Linglestown) in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania for the family’s base. For his mother, Memphis, Tennessee, is the origin point indicated by her high school and family visits.
8) Are there official statements about the family’s ethnicity or nationality?
Several entertainment-news explainers describe the parents as American with Pennsylvania roots; however, the most reliable confirmations come from primary or near-primary sources: obituary notices, alumni references, and Trey’s own features and posts.
These confirm nationality as American and place the family in Pennsylvania and Tennessee within the United States.5
Closing Summary
These origins tell a straightforward story: Pennsylvania on his father’s side, Memphis to Pennsylvania on his mother’s, and a shared emphasis on community, service, and education that shows up in the way Trey describes his family and, arguably, in how he reports from some of the world’s hardest places.
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