Charles L. Waddell's Obituary
Charles L. Waddell, a towering political figure who represented Loudoun and parts of Fairfax County in the Virginia Senate for nearly three decades, died July 19, 2022, in Leesburg. He was 90.
Waddell, who served as chair of the Senate Transportation Committee for 14 years, is best remembered for his support of major road improvement initiatives in Loudoun and Fairfax. He was responsible for legislation to widen Route 28 – then a congested two-lane highway – between Route 7 and Interstate 66, legalizing “right turn on red” in Virginia, authorizing construction of the Dulles Greenway, and raising the speed limit on the Greenway to 65 mph.
A tall, affable, progressive Democrat, Waddell served one term on the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors before being elected in 1971 as a state senator representing the 33rd District, which encompassed all of Loudoun County and a portion of western Fairfax. He was re-elected six more times and retired from a 34-year career in public service without ever losing an election.
Widely known as “Charlie,” he was born Charles Lindbergh Waddell on May 13, 1932, in Braselton, Ga., where his parents, James and Ila Mae (White) Waddell, had a cotton farm. He was the third of six sons, two of whom died in childhood. He later changed his middle name to “Lindy,” a nickname of the famous aviator after whom he was named.
Waddell attributed his interest in politics to his father, who would often take him to the county seat to watch trials and meet public officials.
After graduating from high school, where he was a starting forward on a state championship basketball team, he followed his older brothers to Northern Virginia. He had a 38-year career with American Airlines, where his responsibilities included scheduling crews, serving as ramp agent and working behind the ticket counter and in customer service. In 1960, he flew with and managed air travel logistics for Richard Nixon’s unsuccessful Presidential campaign.
In 1960, Waddell and his first wife, the former Marie Dawson, whom he had married in 1954, moved from Alexandria to Broad Run Farms in eastern Loudoun, where they raised a family of three sons. He began his political career as a member, and eventually chairman, of the Loudoun Democratic Committee.
He won election to the Board of Supervisors in 1967 after defeating longtime incumbent J. Emory Kirkpatrick in the Democratic primary. During his single term on the board, he was successful in keeping a campaign promise to provide free textbooks to children in the public schools. He also supported the creation of Loudoun’s first sanitary landfill in 1971.
Later that year, Waddell was elected senator representing the newly created 33rd District, even though 80 percent of the district’s population resided in western Fairfax, he said. He was reelected six times – once without opposition – before stepping aside in 1998, midway through his seventh term, when Governor James Gilmore appointed him Deputy Secretary of Transportation. He later served two years on the Virginia Parole Board before retiring from public service.
Aside from his highway improvement initiatives, Waddell’s accomplishments in the senate included sponsorship of legislation that removed architectural barriers for people with disabilities, required auto repair facilities to offer written estimates, created “land use tax” to help preserve land in agriculture, required sprinklers in high-rise buildings, and established the presumption that heart and lung problems suffered by firefighters and other public safety workers resulted from their service in the line of duty.
He was instrumental in obtaining funding for Northern Virginia Community College’s Sterling Campus, where one of the buildings was later named for him. He also helped secure funding to preserve George C. Marshall’s home in Leesburg and influenced the decisions to locate the National Guard Armory and Marion DuPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Loudoun.
During his career in the senate, he became known as “the singing senator” because of his propensity to pick up a microphone and sing country and western standards at campaign and other public events. One of his favorites was “The Wabash Cannonball,” into which he would often insert new lyrics to fit the occasion.
In 1998, Waddell married the former Jane Rankin Herring, the mother of former Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring. Since her death in 2017, he resided at Spring Arbor, an assisted living facility in Leesburg, where he frequently entertained his fellow residents by singing country and bluegrass favorites until shortly before his passing.
He was preceded in death by his parents and brothers Myron (“Rube”), Ralph, Randall and James. He is survived by his brother Leroy; sons Jeffrey (Wendy), Gregory (Brenda) and Scott (Judy); stepchildren Susan Shaw (James) and Mark Herring (Laura); grandchildren Elizabeth Waddell, Jennifer (Steve) Rivers, Jonathan (Crystal) Waddell, Brianna (Jay) Michaud, Lindy Waddell, Ryan (Natalia) Waddell, Kristen Rowles, Andrew Shaw, Katherine (Sam) Shaw, Thomas Shaw, Peyton Herring, and Timothy Herring; and great-grandchildren Austin Rivers, Asher Waddell, Alexxys Ferguson, James Michaud, and Emmy Michaud.
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