Ella Joan (Jody) Bolling Baldwin

Jody Baldwin died of natural causes on Thursday, March 20, 2025. She was 94 years old. Born in Norton, Va., on August 31, 1930, she was the daughter of Henry Cecil and Nelle Mann Bolling. She began studying piano and art at an early age. She continued these interests in college, earning a bachelor’s degree in music (voice) from Hollins College (now Hollins University), giving her senior recital in five languages in the spring of 1953. At Hollins, she also studied art, and her oil paintings have hung in her home for years. She then worked on her master’s degree in music education at the University of Virginia, where she was elected president of the women’s student government, the sweetheart of Sigma Chi fraternity, and president of her Lambda Gamma chapter of Chi Omega. She began her career in Washington, D.C., in the U.S. Copyright Office in the Library of Congress but soon moved to the U.S. Senate. In 1957, Jody married Donald Winston Baldwin, and began their family in Alexandria, Va. In the U.S. Senate, she filled various positions in the offices of Sen. Len B. Jordan (R., Idaho) Sen. James B. Pearson (R., Kansas) and ultimately under Sen. John G. Tower (R., Texas) chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee. Her last 12 years in the Senate were spent on this committee which serves all Republican Senators. Jody ended her career in the Senate as deputy director of the Policy Committee. During her years in government, she also received a political appointment from President Richard Nixon to the staff of an assistant secretary of HEW, and she served Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and presidential nominee Senator Bob Dole as deputy editor of their GOP platforms in 1984, 1988, 1992, and 1996. After retiring from her first career in 1985, she formed a lobbying firm with two friends, representing the government of South Africa for seven years. Her third career was running an antique shop and mall for seven years in Alexandria, giving vent to her interest in antiques. Over the years, Jody had been active locally in the Junior Women’s club, the Twig (the junior auxiliary of the Alexandria hospital) and Antiques in Alexandria. Of all her accomplishments, aside from her three beloved children, Jody was proudest of founding with her husband, Donald, the Anglican parish of St. Andrew of Scotland in Alexandria in 1979. Over the years, she served this parish as registrar, junior warden, and senior warden, and for 30 years directed the parish choir, as well as playing the organ for many of those years. Jody was preceded in death by her husband Donald in 2023 and her son Winston Monroe Baldwin in 2022. She is survived by her son Alan Henry Baldwin, of Texas, and one daughter, Elizabeth Baldwin Chryst, also of Texas, two grandsons, five granddaughters, and thirteen great-grandchildren and one (1) great-great grandson. In lieu of flowers, please make contributions to St. Andrew and St. Margaret of Scotland, 410 Monroe Avenue, Alexandria, in memory of Jody. Her funeral will be held Monday, April 7, 2025 at 11am at that parish located at 402 E. Monroe Ave, in Alexandria, VA 22301. A private family interment will take place at the Baldwin family plot in Salem, Va on April 8, 2025.