Elizabeth L. Jackson, a former advertising executive who later managed a landscaping business, died of breast cancer Sunday at her Owings Mills home. She was 60.
Born Elizabeth Lavache in Westchester County, N.Y., she was the daughter of Daniel E. Lavache, an accounting executive, and Rita L. Lavache, who worked as a Baltimore County government employee.
She moved to Baltimore in 1971, and was a 1973 graduate of Towson High School. She earned a bachelor's degree from Towson University.
While in high school, she met her future husband, J. Robert Jackson. They married in 1979.
"I was in the front row and she was in the second row," Mr. Jackson said. "I remember going over to her desk. She had beautiful long, curly hair. It was the hippie era. One day she brought me a newspaper picture of me from The Jeffersonian. The photographer shot me with Spiro Agnew at a voting booth."
After they started dating, Mr. Jackson said, he realized they had several things in common -- both of their parents owned Corvairs, both had patio table and chairs Rockville MD the same Spode buttercup china pattern, and both cooked from tattered copies of Fannie Farmer cookbooks.
While working as a waitress at the old Midtown Yacht Club, Ms. Jackson got to know staff members of the advertising and public relations firm Gilbert Sandler & Associates, which was later Weber Shandwick. She initially freelanced with the firm and became a production artist in 1978.
"It was clear where her talents were, and she soon became an account manager," said a friend and colleague, Kevin O'Keefe, the former president of Weber Shandwick.
Ms. Jackson rose from account management to executive vice president, her colleagues said. She went on to run the agency's Rockville office.
She led marketing and brand management campaigns for clients in real estate, technology, telecommunications, biotechnology, financial services, health and education.
She assisted in launching a marketing campaign for the Archdiocese of Baltimore's schools in the early 1990s. She ran a team whose members launched and marketed Owings Mills New Town. She was also a consultant to Associated Catholic Charities, the Alzheimer's Association and the Neighborhood Design Center.
Colleagues said her clients included the U.S. Geological Survey, Microlog Corp., the Johns Hopkins University, Hughes Network Systems, the Maryland State Highway Administration and Orbital Sciences Corp.
"She was a prodigious talent and enormously passionate about her work and her colleagues and her clients. She gave 110 percent every day," said Mr. O'Keefe. "She truly understood what helped sell products and ideas.
"She had a great sense of style," he said. "She was an enormously fun person to have as a friend and colleague."
Ms. Jackson received Addy Awards from the American Advertising Federation and a Silver Anvil from the Public Relations Society of America.
She was also honored for her work by the National University Continuing Education Association and the Bank Marketing Association. She spoke before the National Advertising Agency Network, the National Association of Community Colleges and the Greater Baltimore Committee, discussing ways to integrate communications effectively.
"Liz was one of the most wonderful, caring and smartest women I have ever known," said friend Jay Jenkins of interior design firm Jenkins Baer Associates. "Her devotion to her husband and to her dogs was amazing. She was intelligent and well-read. She had a love for life."
In 1999, she retired from Weber Shandwick. She then earned a degree from the University of Baltimore School of contemporary furniture Rockville MD Law.
Ms. Jackson joined her husband's landscape design and building firm, Bob Jackson Landscapes. She did its marketing and worked in business development. She also assisted in its commercial maintenance division, whose clients include Mercy Ridge, the Cordish Cos. and Johns Hopkins at Green Spring Station.
She created ads and placed them in publications for the firm's residential division and helped expand its business in Easton, St. Michaels and Oxford on the Eastern Shore.
"Her depth of experience made her a tremendous asset to the firm," said her husband. "She introduced me to museums and cathedrals in every city we visited. She was a Renaissance woman."
Ms. Jackson also led the landscape firm's involvement in local charities and organizations, working with Hopewell Cancer Support, The Family Tree, Irvine Nature Center and Ladew Topiary Gardens.
She read widely and enjoyed spending time with her husband at their second home in Oxford on the Eastern Shore.
A Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 10 a.m. today at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in Glyndon.
In addition to her husband, survivors include nieces and nephews.
[email protected]
Born Elizabeth Lavache in Westchester County, N.Y., she was the daughter of Daniel E. Lavache, an accounting executive, and Rita L. Lavache, who worked as a Baltimore County government employee.
She moved to Baltimore in 1971, and was a 1973 graduate of Towson High School. She earned a bachelor's degree from Towson University.
While in high school, she met her future husband, J. Robert Jackson. They married in 1979.
"I was in the front row and she was in the second row," Mr. Jackson said. "I remember going over to her desk. She had beautiful long, curly hair. It was the hippie era. One day she brought me a newspaper picture of me from The Jeffersonian. The photographer shot me with Spiro Agnew at a voting booth."
After they started dating, Mr. Jackson said, he realized they had several things in common -- both of their parents owned Corvairs, both had patio table and chairs Rockville MD the same Spode buttercup china pattern, and both cooked from tattered copies of Fannie Farmer cookbooks.
While working as a waitress at the old Midtown Yacht Club, Ms. Jackson got to know staff members of the advertising and public relations firm Gilbert Sandler & Associates, which was later Weber Shandwick. She initially freelanced with the firm and became a production artist in 1978.
"It was clear where her talents were, and she soon became an account manager," said a friend and colleague, Kevin O'Keefe, the former president of Weber Shandwick.
Ms. Jackson rose from account management to executive vice president, her colleagues said. She went on to run the agency's Rockville office.
She led marketing and brand management campaigns for clients in real estate, technology, telecommunications, biotechnology, financial services, health and education.
She assisted in launching a marketing campaign for the Archdiocese of Baltimore's schools in the early 1990s. She ran a team whose members launched and marketed Owings Mills New Town. She was also a consultant to Associated Catholic Charities, the Alzheimer's Association and the Neighborhood Design Center.
Colleagues said her clients included the U.S. Geological Survey, Microlog Corp., the Johns Hopkins University, Hughes Network Systems, the Maryland State Highway Administration and Orbital Sciences Corp.
"She was a prodigious talent and enormously passionate about her work and her colleagues and her clients. She gave 110 percent every day," said Mr. O'Keefe. "She truly understood what helped sell products and ideas.
"She had a great sense of style," he said. "She was an enormously fun person to have as a friend and colleague."
Ms. Jackson received Addy Awards from the American Advertising Federation and a Silver Anvil from the Public Relations Society of America.
She was also honored for her work by the National University Continuing Education Association and the Bank Marketing Association. She spoke before the National Advertising Agency Network, the National Association of Community Colleges and the Greater Baltimore Committee, discussing ways to integrate communications effectively.
"Liz was one of the most wonderful, caring and smartest women I have ever known," said friend Jay Jenkins of interior design firm Jenkins Baer Associates. "Her devotion to her husband and to her dogs was amazing. She was intelligent and well-read. She had a love for life."
In 1999, she retired from Weber Shandwick. She then earned a degree from the University of Baltimore School of contemporary furniture Rockville MD Law.
Ms. Jackson joined her husband's landscape design and building firm, Bob Jackson Landscapes. She did its marketing and worked in business development. She also assisted in its commercial maintenance division, whose clients include Mercy Ridge, the Cordish Cos. and Johns Hopkins at Green Spring Station.
She created ads and placed them in publications for the firm's residential division and helped expand its business in Easton, St. Michaels and Oxford on the Eastern Shore.
"Her depth of experience made her a tremendous asset to the firm," said her husband. "She introduced me to museums and cathedrals in every city we visited. She was a Renaissance woman."
Ms. Jackson also led the landscape firm's involvement in local charities and organizations, working with Hopewell Cancer Support, The Family Tree, Irvine Nature Center and Ladew Topiary Gardens.
She read widely and enjoyed spending time with her husband at their second home in Oxford on the Eastern Shore.
A Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 10 a.m. today at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in Glyndon.
In addition to her husband, survivors include nieces and nephews.
[email protected]