Jacquelyn Ruth Struble Dinwiddie

Jacquelyn (Jacque) Ruth Struble Dinwiddie, long-time resident of Alexandria and Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia, left us on December 19, 2020, at 3:30 in the morning just shy of her 96 ^th birthday. It was quite likely the only thing she’d done at that hour, outside of conceiving one of her four exemplary children, in her remarkable life. She was at home at “The Farm” on Smith Mountain Lake surrounded by her loving husband of 71 years, Jimmy, her three daughters, Heather, Holly, and Leesa, her son-in-law David, and her wonderful caregivers Stephanie Walker, Angie Edwards, Jamie Lane, and Sandie Bartmess.

Jacque was born on January 15, 1924 in Connellsville, PA to George Stanley Struble and Marian Gertrude Struble. In addition to her brother “Buzz”, she was one of 31 first cousins with whom she was close, especially Kay McCormick Smith and Mary Aline Struble Fox, who were very close in age and grew up more like sisters than cousins. During the Depression, the entire Struble clan would frequently gather at Jacque’s grandparents’ house and Jacque would share a bed with Kay and Mary Aline. She would always secure the middle for herself so that she would never be without the covers. Her parents and many of her aunts and uncles bought cottages up in the mountains near Somerset, PA and would spend their free time in what became known as “Struble Gulch”.

Jacque graduated from Pennsylvania State University (“Penn State Forever!”) with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Pre-Med. At Penn State she became a member of the Epsilon Alpha chapter of AOII sorority. After graduation she moved down to Washington, DC to do a residency at Doctor’s Hospital. There she worked with the doctor who was developing the proper dosages and usage of penicillin and became a registered Medical Technologist, ASCP.

After that she and her buddy Elsie Lee Evans got on a bus and traveled across country to Los Angeles, where she got a job at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital and an apartment two blocks from Hollywood and Vine with several of her friends and sorority sisters. A couple of the girls had boyfriends, who they would invite over for dinner. One evening, those young men brought along their fraternity brother Jim Dinwiddie. Jacque always said she fell for him at first sight because of his baby blue eyes.

“Jimmy” and Jacque were married on October 8, 1949. As the wife of an Air Force officer, she made a gracious home for her husband and children and their guests in many different places from Biloxi, MS to Albuquerque, NM to Cheltenham, England, to Oak Ridge, TN, to Dayton, OH, to Palo Alto, CA and finally to Alexandria, VA. Beside her family, her sorority connections were especially important to her. As she once said, “Whenever I moved, I could count on finding a new church and new AOII sisters.” She actively volunteered for the AOII Foundation in many capacities. She liked the idea of helping young women, so she also established and helped raise money for the Edith Anderson Endowment Fund, a scholarship awarded to an AOII graduate student in the medical field. In 2003 she was awarded the Barbara Daugs Hunt award, which biennially recognizes an alumna who has demonstrated outstanding lifelong service and support to AOII.

Professionally, Jacque had extensive management and supervisory experience of medical laboratories and blood banks. She was also an adjunct professor and developed a new curriculum in Medical Laboratory Techniques at Prince George’s Community College.  After moving to Alexandria, VA Jacque became politically active, serving on Charles Robb’s Gubernatorial Campaign staff, and coordinating fund raising events for the Robb for Senate Campaign. She served on the Carter-Mondale Election Committee and Transition Staff and then on President Carter’s personal staff in the office of the Counsel, managing the White House Security Office.

Many of President Jimmy Carter’s people went to work for President Bill Clinton. The Clinton people were advised that if they hired Jacque to run the White House Security Office again, they would never have any trouble with the FBI, CIA or any of those other ominous three letter Federal agencies. They hired someone else – and we all know how well that went. To paraphrase an anonymous source in the New York Times, “We’d not be in this mess if we’d hired HER.”

In the Clinton Administration, she served in the Administrative Office of the Peace Corps and later as an administrative assistant to the Director of Management of USAID. Towards the end of President Clinton’s second term, she returned to the White House and assisted the Director of Presidential Personnel before joining First Lady Hillary Clinton’s staff. In between President Carter’s and President Clinton’s Administrations, she received a Master’s Degree in American Political and Diplomatic History from George Washington University.

Jacque is survived by her husband of 71 years James Fearing Dinwiddie, her son Jim Dinwiddie and daughter-in-law Annie Young, her daughter Heather Dinwiddie and son-in-law Tom Hill, her daughter Holly Dinwiddie and son-in-law David Thirkill, her daughter Leesa Dinwiddie and son-in-law Jimmy Kerns, her grandchildren Alexander Dinwiddie, Devin Dinwiddie, Autumn Doshier, April Dinwiddie, Ruth Thirkill, Leah Thirkill, JR Kerns, Sarah Kerns, Noah Thirkill, and her great-grandchildren Kaeden and Nolan Doshier and Lorenz and Johann Hansen-Goos as well as many Struble and Dinwiddie relatives and numerous friends around the world.

Jacque was a gracious, elegant, and classy lady, who will be missed by many. The house at “The Farm” has a resident ghost, who was remarkably active in the days before Jacque died. Lights flickered, things were mysteriously moved from place to place, and the cd player went haywire until Christmas Carols were played. It was obvious that the resident spirit needed Jacque in the afterlife p.d.q. There was probably a particularly tricky seating chart for an afterlife formal dinner that needed seeing to. Or perhaps the caterers had supplied a sub-standard salmon.

She was sent off in her mink coat without which she would never have left the house in winter.

“AOII is a really important part of my life. That is how I hope to be remembered.” It is in this spirit that memorial donations can be made in Jacque’s name to the Edith Anderson Scholarship fund of the AOII Foundation. To donate online - https://www.alphaomicronpi.org/foundation/donate/

• For the Designation, select Named Scholarship Fund.
• Scholarship Name:  Edith Huntington Anderson Scholarship
• Tribute Gift:  check the box for “This gift is in honor, memory or support someone.”
• In the “Leave a comment” box, put “In memory of Jacquelyn Struble Dinwiddie.”

Arrangements by Flora Funeral Service and Cremation Center, Rocky Mount.