Jane Kennedy Caldwell
7/08/1914 - 3/18/2005 | Marker: Memorial Plaque
Jane Kennedy Caldwell (nee Jane Elizabeth Ballheim), formerly of Swarthmore, PA and Easton, MD, died peacefully on Friday, March 18, at the Medford Leas Retirement Community in Medford, NJ, after a brief illness. She was 90 years old. Born in Cedar Rapids, IA, she was the child of Norman Charles Ballheim and Norma Peddycoart Ballheim, both musicians. Her father, a violinist and orchestra leader, died suddenly when she was two years old. The famed violinist, Fritz Kreisler, when he had occasion to hear Mr. Ballheim play, is reported to have said “it was the sweetest sound I have ever heard made on a violin.” Mr. Ballheim was the child of Ida Palmer Ballheim, sister of Austin Norman Palmer, originator of the “Palmer Method” of penmanship, widely taught in schools at the time.
Mrs. Caldwell’s mother subsequently married Floyd Edward Kennedy of Detroit, MI, whose surname Mrs. Caldwell took by adoption. After living in Omaha, Detroit and Des Moines, the family eventually settled in Atlantic City, NJ, where Mrs. Caldwell attended Atlantic City High School and graduated from St. Leonard’s School in Ventnor.
Shortly after graduation, she married Dr. Richard Conrad Bew, an Atlantic City physician. They had two children, and resided first on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City, then on Brigantine Island. An accomplished golfer in her younger years, she played at the Atlantic City and Seaview Country Clubs. They were divorced shortly after World War II, and Mrs. Caldwell later married S. Dean Caldwell III of Bethesda, MD and Swarthmore, PA, with whom she had two children. She and Mr. Caldwell resided in Reno, Nevada for several years, and then moved to Swarthmore, PA where they lived continuously until they retired.
An avid reader, Mrs. Caldwell volunteered at the Swarthmore Public Library and then worked for 17 years as secretary to the Swarthmore Friends Meeting. She retired with her husband to Easton, MD, in 1978, where they were active in the Third Haven Friends Meeting, and enjoyed sailing their 29-foot Islander. Mr. and Mrs. Caldwell moved to Medford Leas in 1998. Mrs. Caldwell was preceded in death by her husband, S. Dean Caldwell, in 2002; her half-sister, Ruth Kennedy Frazer, and her half-brother, Daniel Kennedy. She is survived by two sons, Samuel D. Caldwell IV, of Media, PA, and Richard Palmer Bew of Cape May Point, NJ; two daughters, Narrye Davis Caldwell, of Boulder Creek, CA, and Jane Elizabeth Bew Jennings, of Monroe, NJ; 14 grandchildren and 18 greatgrandchildren. A memorial service was April 16, at Third Haven.