Judith Lynn (Warwick) Smaldone of Arnold, talented multimedia artist, family historian, and wife of Joseph P. Smaldone, passed away peacefully at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, on September 21 at the age of 83. Judy was born on 6 July 1943 in Queens, NY, the second of five children of Charles H. Warwick and Genevieve “Jeane” Jacobson. She grew up in Springfield Gardens, attended Andrew Jackson High School and Queens College. In June 1963 she took a job as a waitress at the 24-hour Tulsa Diner in Valley Stream, which had just hired recent high school graduate Joe Smaldone as a busboy … the rest, as they say, is history. After a four-year distance relationship while Joe attended college out-of-state and Judy completed college and commenced graduate school in upstate NY, Judy and Joe married on 11 June 1967 in Valley Stream and started a 59-year journey together. They had 14 addresses during the first few years, moving back and forth between Rochester, NY, where Judy was working on her masters degree in ceramics and textiles at The School for American Craftsmen (Rochester Institute of Technology), and Evanston, IL, where Joe was studying for his doctorate in African studies at Northwestern University, and then back and forth across the country while Joe was in the Marines. The first three years of marriage were remarkably productive: they earned 3 graduate degrees and had their two sons, Tim and Dave.

In summer 1971, after Joe completed US Marine Corps Basic School in Quantico, VA and served a tour as an infantry company commander at Camp Pendleton, CA, the family moved to Annapolis where Joe taught for two years in the Political Science Department at the US Naval Academy. Thus began the family’s long residence in the Annapolis area. In November 1974 they moved into a new home in the Bay Hills community in Arnold. Judy ran the household, kept up with the boys in school and sports, and became involved in local arts and service organizations. She volunteered in multiple capacities at her boys’ elementary, middle, and high schools, and in the Bay Hills community. For many years she was a member of St. Martin’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Annapolis, where she helped organize the annual holiday arts-and-crafts fair, joined the women’s quilting circle that made quilts to be auctioned at the fair, and made unique Christmas ornaments to sell and gift to her family. In the late 1970s she joined the Annapolis Opera guild, which, among other fundraising activities, also made quilts. She also became a costumer for the Opera, and over the years designed and built original elaborate costumes for the Opera, the Ballet Theatre of Maryland (after 1990), and occasionally for other performing arts groups like Toby’s Dinner Theatre. Some of her costumes were so beautiful and durable that they continued to be used year after year, and were featured in front-page photos in the Annapolis Capital. In 1986 she became the Costume Manager for the Opera and built a small business renting costumes to individuals and groups, thus earning much-needed funds. Judy was a fabric aficionado, acquiring a stockpile of special pieces always ready for her next inspiration. She put her talents to work at home as well, making quilted bedspreads and throws, wall hangings that still adorn her home, baby quilts and blankets, and exquisite quilted Christmas stockings for each of her children, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren, each one uniquely fashioned to the recipient’s persona. She made bedspreads, hooked rugs, decorated hot pads, embroidered items of clothing, curtains, seat cushion covers, covers for throw pillows, Halloween costumes, personalized sheets and pillow cases for the grandchildren, and even giant stuffed pandas, among other things. She started volunteering for the AAMC Auxiliary in 1994, when the hospital was still located in downtown Annapolis, and continued to serve at the Luminis Health campus until this summer. She logged almost 6,000 hours of service over more than 30 years by delivering flowers, magazines (many of which she collected on her own), and small amenities to patients for their comfort and convenience, and sometimes working in the Auxiliary office. In recent years she also volunteered at the welcome desk of the US Naval Academy Chapel during Sunday Protestant services.

After the birth of her first grandchild Jackie, Judy got interested in genealogy and for the rest of her life she researched her roots in Sweden, the British Isles, and elsewhere in Northern Europe, and in the places they settled – New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. She always knew her mother’s ancestry was Swedish, but she discovered that her father’s family went back to early colonial times in America. Joe joined her in this quest to learn more about their ancestors, and together they made countless trips to Washington, DC to do research at the Library of Congress, National Archives, and DAR Library. They also traveled around the United States, to places where their ancestors lived, to catch up with distant relatives, and to meet newly-discovered cousins. They even went to Ireland, the British Isles, Sweden, and Italy to track down ancestral roots and cousins. Judy felt a particular kinship with her Swedish family and cousins whom she visited a couple of times in Sweden and occasionally hosted in the US. She and Joe collaborated as co-authors of articles on some of her interesting ancestral relatives and published them in professional journals, including one that corrected and added several generations to the family tree of Judy’s distant cousin Walt Whitman, the famed poet and literary figure. She was a member of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society and the New England Historic Genealogical Society.

Judy enjoyed the arts, traveling to see the family and natural and historic wonders in the USA and abroad, and at home took pleasure in gardening, cooking, and baking. She introduced untutored boyfriend Joe to the cultural resources of New York City, and became a lifetime member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She and Joe traveled extensively around the United States, made several trips to Europe, and in later years enjoyed taking Road Scholar programs. Locally, they regularly went to museums, galleries, and other cultural venues in Annapolis, Baltimore, and Washington. Her wooded backyard prevented her garden from getting enough sun to thrive, but she tended to every shrub, flower, plant and vegetable with care. Besides, the backyard became a certified wildlife habitat that hosted an incredible diversity of creatures that lived there or passed through. Over the years she planted a variety of flowers and shrubs around the house and yard, ensuring an annual succession of colorful blooms that lasted from Spring to Fall. She enjoyed baking saffron coffee cakes, using her Swedish grandmother’s recipe, and tins of spritz cookies for Christmas, and sharing them with her family. Whenever she visited Dave’s family in West Virginia, or they came to Arnold, she treated them to special meals and desserts, and made her signature blueberry pancakes and French toast for grandsons A.J. and Jason.

Judy was at heart a creative craftsman devoted to her home, family, and community. In addition to designing and making heirloom quality gifts for her extended family, she made much of her own clothing (lavender and mauve her favorite colors), from bathrobes to slacks and blouses, to distinctive jackets and vests, and even some for Joe. She fixed things that others would have discarded, repurposed things that had outlived their usefulness, recycled everything possible, and donated heirlooms, used clothing and housewares to charities. Judy was a little conservative in many respects, and a frugal woman who hunted for bargains, clipped coupons, enjoyed shopping the aisles and scoring good deals. Joe was the family breadwinner, but Judy accumulated the savings, obliging Joe to say that she saved more than he ever earned! She was a member and patron of numerous historical preservation and nature/wildlife conservation groups and causes. In her own quiet, unassuming, and determined way she built communities, always putting others first and willing to serve and help. Judy kept in touch with several of her childhood friends, occasionally traveling to visit them or hosting them when they were in the area. Her life was her art, her world was her studio, and she used her creative talents in many practical everyday ways. She relished her tea, toast and jam, and vanilla bean ice cream. She was skilled in an amazing array of media – ceramics, woodworking, metal, jewelry, print-making, stained glass, textiles, drawing, and painting. But she never learned to type, so Joe (who taught himself to type during the first months of their marriage) became her clerk, typing her papers and even her graduate school thesis. Later, when computers came to dominate our lives, she learned to search the Internet and was reasonably proficient doing genealogical research online, but relied on Joe to type her emails and correspondence.

Judy was predeceased by her sisters Linda Sparaco, Carole Winkler, and Susan Lohse, and brother Charlie. In addition to husband Joe, Judy’ survivors include sons Tim (Michele) of Loomis, CA and Dave (Erin) of Falling Waters, WV; granddaughters Jackie Dyson (Anthony) of Selma, NC and Brooke Smaldone of Loomis, CA; grandsons A.J. and Jason Smaldone of Falling Waters; and many cousins, nieces and nephews and grand-nieces and nephews, all of whom she always remembered on their birthdays and other special occasions with cards and checks. They will all miss her and treasure their memories of her. Judy will be laid to rest in a private family inurnment at Lakemont Memorial Gardens, Davidsonville, and a celebration of Judy’s life will be held at Barranco Severna Park Funeral Home, Sat., Oct. 24, 2-4 pm. Memorial contributions in lieu of flowers may be made to Luminis Health Anne Arundel Medical Center Foundation (https://supportaamc.luminishealth.org/give/355297#!/donation/checkout).