JACQUELINE QUILLEN

1942 - 2020

QUILLEN-- Jacqueline Loomis. November 21, 1942 - October 1, 2020. Jacqueline Loomis Quillen died peacefully at her East Hampton, NY, home, just short of her 78th birthday. The cause was heart failure. In her last weeks, Jackie was surrounded by her three sons Parker, Whitney and Barton Quillen, and daughters-in-law Bronwyn, Tamar and Lisa Quillen. Family and friends knew her as perhaps the kindest, most spirited and just plain fun person in their lives. She had a first-rate intellect and tirelessly embraced new experiences and friendships. She was known and loved as one of the great hosts of Washington. An invitation to her Georgetown home guaranteed hours of great wine and food prepared by Jackie or a select few sous-chef friends - and far-ranging, blessedly civil conversations with guests from around the world. She had a great laugh and loved dogs. She was also a pioneering businesswoman. In her 30s and 40s, while raising her three boys in New Orleans, she became a rare woman in the wine business. She founded the Wine & Cheese Company on Magazine Street in 1974, which may have been Louisiana's first female-owned and managed wine retail and importing business. Back then, the neighborhood was gritty, even dangerous, but as an entrepreneur, she was in the forefront of revitalizing an area now known for its galleries and restaurants. The wine world soon took notice of her maiden venture in the Big Easy. By 1979, Michael Broadbent, the late, great wine expert, brought Jackie to New York, where she established the North American wine department for Christie's, the British auction house. It was both a challenging and enduring mission. Forty-one years later, Christie's still auctions fine and rare wines in the United States. Michael was Jackie's mentor, and their close friendship connected them and their families for the rest of their lives. In 1987, Jackie was recruited by the National Trust for Historic Preservation to help with the restoration and opening of President James Madison's 18th-Century home in Montpelier Station, VA. She spent two years living on the property to coordinate historians, constitutional scholars, and Congressional offices so that Madison's historic home would open in time for the 200th birthday of the U.S. Constitution. With that Bicentennial duly celebrated, Jackie was lured back to Washington, DC, the city of her birth, by the late Rev. Harold C. Bradley, then head of Georgetown University's Center for Immigration Policy and Refugee Assistance. She helped with fundraising for programs to aid impoverished youth worldwide. In true Jesuit fashion, they were always about education, which Jackie valued highly. She had been an exceptional student, first at The Madeira School, the prepatory school for girls in McLean, VA where she received her secondary education and then at Radcliffe/Harvard where she completed her first three years of college before she married at age 20; about ten years later, she attended Newcomb/Tulane where she completed her undergraduate degree. In her 40s, she earned a master's degree in English Literature from Georgetown, focusing on the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins and others. By any measure, she thrived during her last three decades in Washington, making many friends and taking part, formally and informally, in the city's rich cultural life. She served on a number of boards promoting the visual and performing arts, including Young Concert Artists, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the Folger Shakespeare Library's Poetry Board. A voracious reader, she and several friends started a book club that met regularly for some 20 years. She was a member of the Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, and during her decades in Washington she continued to share her gift of teaching others how to taste and enjoy wine by hosting numerous tastings and other wine events at her home and at the Sulgrave Club, where she was a member. Jackie's idea of a life well-lived consisted of four parts: The mind, to be nourished by constant travel, reading and conversation; classical concert music; the great outdoors, and presiding over splendidly festive dinners at home. Jackie's dining table -- and the fellowship she nurtured around it -- is where friends and family will remember her shining most brightly. In an era of endless, often mindless, screen media, and diminished human interaction, Jackie's table stands out as a welcoming stage for vital contact, lively conversation and friendship. Let the record reflect that she presided over a dozen family meals in her final days, each of them memorable. Any description of Jackie's life must include her love of outdoor life and wildlife. She was a dedicated, generous supporter of several environmental groups, and her life was filled with numerous treks, hikes and other adventures in nature, including summiting the Matterhorn. Twice. The first, at age 16, was with her father, Dr. William Farnsworth "Farnie" Loomis, an accomplished alpinist in his time. When she arrived at the summit the second time, at 40, she was interviewed by a reporter for the German daily Der Spiegel, who asked her what the biggest difference was between her two climbs. "The Matterhorn has gotten a lot taller," she quipped. Jackie is survived by her three sons Parker, Whitney and Barton; daughters-in-law Bronwyn, Tamar, and Lisa, and her six grandchildren Declan, Loomis, Shavasp, Armen, Yeraz, and Madeleine. A service for Jackie is expected to be held in the Spring of 2021. Memorial donations have been suggested to the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons, P.O. Box 901, Wainscott, NY 11975.