Jacqueline S. Schneider

Jacquie was born on a farm in Pennsylvania in 1938, the middle child of five children. As a young woman, Jacquie worked for Bell Telephone as a sales representative in Lansdale. It was there that Jacquie’s supervisor convinced Jacquie to write to her nephew, Clint, who was in flight training in Pensacola. Clint was to become the love of Jacquie’s life and husband for the next 64 years.

After a lengthy correspondence that began with Jacquie telling Clint about her love of interpretive dancing and regional theater, Clint invited her to his family's home in New Jersey for the New Year. Jacquie arrived in her 1956 Plymouth, driving through a snowstorm during which she had to stop and fix the snow chains on her tires a couple of times. Clint knew that she was the “one” and proposed on New Year’s Day. Since Clint had to return to Pensacola soon after, he sent her engagement ring through the mail. In mid-April, Clint, along with his operations officer, best man, and usher flew into the Atlantic City airport in Navy T-28s for the wedding ceremony in Smithville, NJ. Clint and Jacquie were able to take a short honeymoon in New Orleans. Clint's wedding present to Jacquie was a Dachshund puppy, the first of many devoted and beloved dogs and cats that joined the Schneider family over the years.

Clint had a thirty-year career in the Navy, and Jacquie was there every step of the way with him, turning their home into a welcoming center for their new friends and colleagues at each of Clint’s dozen or more duty stations. Jacquie went everywhere with Clint except Vietnam. Along the way Jacquie gave birth to two lovely daughters, Tracy and Victoria.

Jacquie had some favorite duty locations during Clint’s career, including Kew Gardens during their London posting where she made several lifelong close English friends and furthered her love and knowledge of flowers and antiques. In Bahrain, Jacquie was a natural diplomat and hostess to the military and international communities there and appreciated continuing relationships with Bahraini friends over the years. One particularly memorable experience from her time in Bahrain was when during an official visit to Muscat, Oman, Jacquie was invited by the advisor to the Sultan of Oman to tour the country in the jump seat of a VIP custom Huey helicopter.

In Munich, Jacquie was involved with the Munich German American Club and hosted many social events at the historic Navy House. Clint was also head of the Rod and Gun Club which had oversight in Bavaria and Turkey. Jacquie was inspired to get her German hunting license and was a natural on the rifle range. In front of a crowd of German men watching intently, as it was highly unusual for a German woman to be near a rifle range at that time, let alone an American, Jacquie borrowed a 223-caliber rifle and put a three-bullet group the size of a fingernail in the bullseye. And then she did it again to show the observers.

After Munich, the family returned to the DC area, where they hosted many gatherings of family and new and old friends over the years. While Jacquie could make a home anywhere, she always looked for an excuse to return to Moosehead Lake, her favorite refuge. Jacquie and Clint were very active in the Moosehead Lake Yacht Club for many years.

But there was one more moving adventure after Clint retired, when they lived for a year on a 51-foot trawler named "Lady Jacq" that she loved to skipper. The Lady Jacq's slip was on Hilton Head Island, so they built a house nearby, where they remained for several years before moving back to Virginia.

Even as Jacquie slowed down in her 80s, she never faced the day without looking her absolute best and she always had words of encouragement, support, advice, and straight talk for the people she cared about whether she had known them for decades or days. Jacquie was a one-of-a-kind bright light to all who were lucky enough to know her, and she will be immeasurably missed.