By Michael Morton
Friends, family and community leaders remembered Barbara Anne DeCosta Waldon of Cambria Heights, an artist and community volunteer known as “Barbara D.,” at a memorial service held at Sacred Heart Church in Cambria Heights Saturday.
Waldon, the wife of Court of Claims Judge Alton Waldon Jr., a former congressman, state assemblyman and state senator, died Feb. 23 after a long illness. She was 66.
Her family could not be reached for comment, but Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans) said her husband said during the memorial that “whoever I am and whatever I have become, Barbara made it possible.”
Comrie also spoke at the service, which was attended by Borough President Helen Marshall and U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-St. Albans), among others.
Waldon was a gifted artist, Comrie said, and worked as an art director for Maxwell Advertising Agency and News 12 Cablevision on Long Island before forming her own companies, Afformations and Images Plus. At Afformations she made fine jewelry, while Images Plus was a design company, Comrie said.
In addition to her professional work, Waldon volunteered at several organizations. She helped out for decades at the Jamaica Service Program for Older Adults and served as vice president in charge of fund-raising. She was a board member of the Queens Museum of Art and attended Sacred Heart, where she founded a gospel choir.
Waldon met her future husband when she was in the second grade and he was in the third. They married in 1961 and raised three children, Alton III, Dana and Ian.
Comrie said those attending the memorial service remembered Waldon as a “loving, vivacious, unpretentious woman who cared about her community, southeastern Queens.”
Others in attendance later said Waldon, known as Barbara D. by acquaintances and “Bar” by her husband, was a celebrity in the borough.
The councilman plans to name a local street in her honor and to put together a permanent archive of her life and work in the historical section of the Queens Public Library.
In addition to her husband and their children, Waldon is survived by four grandchildren and three brothers, among other relatives.
Reach reporter Michael Morton by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by calling 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
