Obituary
Paula Jameson, 62
Paula A. Jameson, a former general counsel for PBS, died June 8 [2007] at age 62. She had fought cancer for eight years.
The PBS Board expressed its sympathy to her family in a resolution June 12, noting: “Her integrity, candor and standards of excellence will be remembered and emulated by the PBS staff for years to come.”
She served as PBS’s senior v.p. and general counsel from 1986 to 1998.
Jameson’s most recent position was executive v.p. and chief operating officer at Children’s Defense Fund in Washington. She joined the fund in January 2003, but illness forced her to retire in March 2004.
“She was just this person who brought people together, and once you were her friend, you were her friend forever,” says Terry Thompson, who knew her more than 30 years.
Friends said Jameson’s photo was distributed at her June 12 service with a characteristic quote: “Any day is a better day if you are wearing red shoes.”
“She was a terrific lawyer, and more than that, she was a wonderfully warm, engaging, thoughtful woman who will be sorely missed,” said former NPR executive Peter Jablow, now president of Washington’s Levine School of Music, who recommended her for the CDF position.
Before PBS, Jameson worked as an attorney for the Washington, D.C., and Fairfax, Va., governments and for Dow-Jones in New York. After PBS, she was a partner in the Washington office of the Arter & Hadden law firm and v.p. and chief administrative officer for the Gibson Guitar Corp. in Nashville. Before moving to the Children’s Defense Fund, she worked at Verizon Wireless in California, Thompson said.
Survivors include her sons Paul and Peter and siblings Richard Jameson, Jim Bailey and Linda Doucet.
—Steve Behrens
Web page posted Aug. 6, 2010
Copyright 2010 by Current LLC