Lebanon, OH-Alexandra (Ballard) Reynolds died on Friday, Aug. 2, 2019.
Alexandra was born in Ronceverte to Chase and Jane (Swink) Ballard. She grew up in Lewisburg. Her father worked in the clothing retail industry and her mother was a homemaker and avid antiquer who owned and operated an antiques shop in Lewisburg in her later years. Alexandra will be missed by family and friends.
Alexandra attended West Virginia University in Morgantown – along with her future husband, Jackson Barnett Reynolds, Jr. She majored in education and was a member of Alpha Xi Delta sorority. She taught French and the history of West Virginia in Lewisburg before she and her husband left for Ithaca, New York and then relocated to Dallas, Texas before establishing their permanent residence in 1969 in Lebanon when her husband, “Jay” became the General Manager of the Golden Lamb. They formed a great partnership with him managing and operating the restaurant and hotel while she focused on the decoration of the hotel rooms, the gift shop and the selection and placement of various antiques and decorative arts throughout the Golden Lamb. Both Jay and Alexandra shared a passion for early American antiques and folk art and established the Golden Lamb as a destination known throughout the country for its fine cuisine and early American décor and traditions. The Golden Lamb was twice the recipient of the prestigious Ivy Award from Restaurants & Institutions Magazine. Alexandra enjoyed many interests in addition to antiques and art; she established the Alpha Xi Delta Nu chapter at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1980 and was a leading member of the Cincinnati Folk Art Group, a donor to the Lebanon Historical Society Museum, Taft Museum and the Cincinnati Museum of Art. She also supported the Warren County Humane Association and was an avid reader.
Preceded in death by her loving husband in 1998, her parents, and her stepfather, Burman Mitchell, she is survived by her two sons, Jackson Barnett Reynolds III (Diane Reynolds) of Columbus, Ohio and Bradley Swink Reynolds (Terri Anne Romano) of St. Helena, CA; and two grandchildren, Chase and Paige Reynolds.
A private service will be held in Lebanon, with arrangements made by the Oswald-Hoskins Funeral Home, Lebanon, Ohio.