Jacqueline Landfield

Jacqueline Landfield was born Marie Louise Jacqueline Plas on November 9, 1926 in Conches (now known as Conches-sur-Gondoire) in the department of Seine-et-Marne, in the Ile de France region of France, a few miles northwest of Paris. She was born near Paris because that's where the work was between the wars of the 20th century. Her father, Jean Baptiste (called Louis) was in the construction industry; her mother Eugenie (called Nini, nee Pradinas) raised Jacqueline and her older sister Georgette. The Plas family is from Treignac, in the department of Correze in the region of Limousin, and has been there at least as far back as the 1600s. "This is the ancestral home," she once wrote. It is very old country; the famous Lascaux caves are in the adjoining department. Neanderthals walked these hills. It is country with deep roots.

The family settled around the 14th and 15th arrondissements of Paris between the wars and during the Second World War, where Jackie finished high school and began working as a secretary. There wasn't a lot of food to be had in those days, and what there was wasn't necessarily good. Like many others, Jackie developed tuberculosis, and spent some years after the war recovering in a sanitarium. On an outing one day to visit a nearby chateau, she made the acquaintance of another visitor, an American studying at the Sorbonne University in Paris on the GI Bill. According to the prevailing version of the story, she had a sandwich and he was hungry, so he introduced himself. A chance encounter and a sandwich on a tour bus quickly evolved into a romance and on January 26, 1952, his birthday, she married Sherwin in Paris. The two of them soon moved to his hometown of Chicago. A son was born in 1954, and another in 1956.

By 1960, Jacqueline had become an American citizen and Sherwin had become a Foreign Service Officer with the US State Department. The 1960s brought tours of duty in Haiti, Paraguay, Ecuador and Bolivia. In addition to French and English, they now spoke Spanish as well. Before they were done, they'd traversed the Straits of Magellan and the Panama Canal, and visited every country in between. A five year stint in Washington DC was followed by one more post overseas, in Ivory Coast, West Africa, after which Sherwin retired from the State Department. Jackie was the consummate hostess on three continents.

With retirement came more travel opportunities. Eventually they visited well over 100 countries together, and all seven continents. In a 1999 Washington Post contest to see who in the area could produce the most visas in a single passport, Sherwin's won handily with 51 visas; Jackie's was right beside his. There were other adventures in store as well; in 1979, Jackie became a certified docent at our nation's National Gallery of Art and for the next 13 years shared her love of the Impressionists and others with visitors from all over the world, putting her multilingual skills to good use. In 1985 she earned an Associate in Science degree from Northern Virginia Community College, another accomplishment she was very proud of. She was a voracious reader, a gifted gardener, and renowned for her culinary skills. One particular crowd pleaser was her persimmon pie, made with fresh persimmons gathered from a secret location in north Arlington.

In 2007, after 36 years living in Arlington and the death of her husband of 55 years, she relocated to Austin, Texas to be closer to her younger son and the warm Texas sun. She resided first at Arden Courts and then at Buckner Villas, Alzheimer facilities in Austin near Pflugerville. She died at 10:02 pm on the night of Wednesday, September 14th at Buckner Villas of pneumonia complicated by Alzheimer's, a progressive and incurable disease that had plagued her for many years. She was 84 years old. She loved flowers and other beautiful things, babies and small furry animals. She was always cheerful and friendly and was loved by everyone she ever met.

Jacqueline is survived by her son Ken and his wife Sue of Homer, Alaska; son Kerry and his wife Michele of Pflugerville, Texas; grandson Zachary of Round Rock, Texas; sister Georgette Lacour and brother-in-law Henri of Paris, France; nephew Philippe Lacour and wife Nathalie of Paris; sister-in-law Joy Feldstein of Evanston, Illinois; niece Julie Goldman of New York City; and cousin Jim Landfield of McLean, Virginia, among others. Her ashes will be comingled with her husband's at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, December 5th at 10:00 am.

In lieu of flowers, those wishing to do so may make a donation to Alzheimer's research or to their local hospice. For further details, please contact [email protected]. Arrangements in Austin by Weed-Corley-Fish.