Candis Leigh Cunningham

Retired Foreign Service officer and Middleburg resident Candis Cunningham passed away peacefully Jan. 15, 2023, at Stone Springs Hospital in Aldie, Va. She was 73.

Born to Foreign Service parents in Germany, Candis spent her childhood in South Africa, Turkey, Rome and Washington. She received her bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s in journalism from Ohio University. A journalist to her core, Candis spent her early professional years as a beat reporter for newspapers in Rome, Ohio, Florida and South Carolina before joining the U.S. Information Agency as a writer-editor in 1975.

Candis served in various positions at USIA and the Department of State including as press attaché at the U.S. embassy in Bogota, Colombia, and press officer at the U.S. Congressional Helsinki Accords Commission, where she founded and edited the CSCE Digest. At State, her assignments included director of the narcotics assistance unit in the embassy in Panama, director of the narcotics affairs unit in the embassy in Peru, and numerous assignments in Washington. In late 2022, Candis came out of retirement and returned to State to work on winding down Afghanistan programs and reprogram funding for those now-defunct efforts.

Candis often said that she was born in the wrong century. She devoured 19th-century English and American literature, and as a confirmed Anglophile, she was addicted to Britbox TV. But she never lost her affinity for Italy; she made a mean Bolognese, and the quickest way to gain her affection was through timely gifts of Baci chocolates. She doted on her family, but especially granddaughter Paige, and their bottle and reading time were treats for them equally. Although she no longer rode, she was an experienced equestrian, who once almost turned a ragged little Colombian pony into a hunter-jumper. Quick with a joke and a sometimes caustic sense of humor, Candis was beloved by colleagues and friends for her courage, kindness, straightforward manner and willingness to tell truth to power.

She is survived by her husband, retired senior Foreign Service officer and Middleburg Town Council Member Morris “Bud” Jacobs; daughter Julia and son-in-law Daniel Rossi; daughter Leigh Jacobs and son-in-law Daniel Wilkinson; granddaughter (and light of Candis’ life) Paige Evelyn Rossi; and canines Rosie and Cooper.

A celebration of this remarkable woman’s life will be planned later. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Candis’ favorite charities, the American Cancer Society and the Committee to Protect Journalists.

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