Gilda Lynn Jones

Gilda Lynn Jones, 94 of Avondale Estates passed away August 26, 2021. Her long life took her from a farm in Water Valley, Mississippi, to Atlanta and around the world.

After graduating from Mississippi State College for Women, she worked as a medical technologist in a small hospital, but realized she needed additional training. In 1952, she moved to Atlanta to work and study at Grady Hospital. There she became interested in bacteriology and began her career at CDC in 1962. As part of a two person teaching team, she traveled the country training state healthcare workers in the fields of virology and parisitology, as part of the Laboratory Training Program of the CDC’s Bureau of Laboratories. Gilda continued to teach bacteriology in this country and across the world. She continued her studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and earned her Ph. D in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was particularly proud of her doctorate having “sat through a lot of boring lectures” on the way to her degree.

At CDC, Gilda was on the front lines in the identification of and editing of the literature on Legionnaires Disease after the outbreak in 1976. She is identified as one of the authors of the reports.

Gilda always had a passion for animals. When she was growing up in Mississippi, she was a member of 4-H Club and had a prizewinning Jersey cow that she entered in many state and national livestock shows. She twice took “Astrid” to a national show in Columbus, Ohio. The cow got to travel by train; Gilda followed on a bus. According to Gilda, Astrid “knew she was a winner and didn’t ever take kindly to coming in second place”.

After Gilda retired from CDC, she joined with a group of like-minded locals who raised money to purchase land on Covington Highway in DeKalb County. They formed the DeKalb Humane Society, the forerunner of PAWS, Atlanta.

Gilda was a faithful member of Avondale First Baptist Church where she was president of her Sunday School Class and the Golden Age Club.

There will be no service. Interment will be in Water Valley at a later date.

Donations in her memory may be made to PAWS, Atlanta (pawsatlanta.org) or Basset Hound Rescue of Georgia. (P.O. Box 1834, Fayetteville, GA 30214.) (BHRG.org)