Alexine Jackson
National President of the YWCA. Chairman of the Board of the
Performing Arts Society, the Community Foundation, Intercultural
Cancer Council, Susan B. Komen Foundation. Board Member at
Strathmore. Selected in 1994 as “Washingtonian of the Year” by
Washingtonian magazine. And all that after she retired.
Alexine was born in Sumter, S.C., graduated from Spelman College in
Atlanta and received her Master’s in Speech Pathology from the
University of Iowa. She went to work at the Children’s Hospital as a
Speech Pathologist, married college sweetheart Aaron and started raising
a family -- twins first, then three others.
The Jacksons moved to California where Aaron fulfilled his military
obligation and then to Greenwood, Miss., where he was the only black
doctor within a 50-mile radius. Those days were during the height of the
Civil Rights movement, and Alexine has some interesting stories to tell.
Their next move was to the University of Iowa where Aaron did his
residency in urology before relocating to Washington, D.C., where for
the next 23 years he taught at Howard University, served as Chief of
Urology at the hospital and had a private practice.
After living in Potomac for 36 years, Alexine felt the need to downsize
following her husband’s death last year. As soon as she stepped out of her
car to attend an Asbury marketing luncheon last fall, she says, she knew
Asbury was the place for her. The beautiful campus and variety of
buildings reminded her of Spelman College. (An interesting side light,
one of Alexine’s granddaughters has graduated from Spelman, making
her the fourth generation of the family to do so.)
Mac McCullough, Diamond Reporter