Jeri Caldwell was an American woman best known as the first wife of music producer Quincy Jones. She married Jones in 1957 and later appeared in a small number of film and documentary projects.
Caldwell died in November 2021.
Who is Jeri Caldwell?
Jeri Caldwell is remembered primarily as the high school sweetheart and first wife of Quincy Jones, one of the most influential producers in American music. The two met as teenagers at Garfield High School in Seattle.
Caldwell later had a small acting credit in the 1994 comedy Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult. She also appeared in the 2018 Netflix documentary Quincy, which chronicled her former husband’s life and career.
Caldwell kept her personal life almost entirely private after her divorce from Jones. She died in November 2021.
Early Life of Jeri Caldwell
Caldwell grew up in Washington State, where she attended Garfield High School in Seattle alongside Quincy Jones. According to Jones, Caldwell caught his attention as a fellow student, and the two began dating during their teenage years.
Caldwell later described the connection differently in a 2001 interview with PBS, saying she felt drawn to Jones the moment she first saw him at a school rehearsal. She was a grade below him at the time.
Details about Caldwell’s parents and extended family have not been publicly confirmed. Her exact birth date has also never been made public, though her school years alongside Jones, who was born in 1933, place her in a similar generation.
Jones later recalled in interviews with Oprah Winfrey that he first noticed Caldwell because she stopped at the school’s water fountain every day. He described her and her sister as popular students at Garfield High during that period.
Jeri Caldwell Age
Caldwell’s exact birth date is not publicly confirmed. Based on her high school years with Quincy Jones in the 1940s, she was likely born in the early to mid 1930s.
She died in November 2021, meaning she would have been in her mid to late eighties at the time of her death.
Jeri Caldwell Ethnicity and Nationality
Jeri Caldwell was an American citizen, raised in Washington State. Reporting on her background describes her as white American.
Beyond her school years in Seattle and her later moves with Jones to New York and Paris, additional details about her cultural or family background have not been publicly documented.
Jeri Caldwell Career
Life Alongside Quincy Jones
Caldwell supported Jones through the early, formative years of his music career. She stayed with him as he moved from Washington State to New York, and later to Paris, where he studied composition under Nadia Boulanger.
That support came during a period when Jones was still building his reputation, long before his decades of hit records and film scores. Caldwell was present for much of that early struggle.
Acting Credits
Caldwell’s only listed film acting credit came decades later, in 1994. She appeared in Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, a comedy sequel starring Leslie Nielsen.
In 2018, she also appeared in the documentary Quincy, directed by Rashida Jones and Alan Hicks. The film examined her former husband’s career and personal life, and included input from several people who knew him across different decades.
Rashida Jones is one of Quincy Jones’s daughters from his later marriage to actress Peggy Lipton. Caldwell’s participation in a documentary made by one of her ex-husband’s other children reflected the extended, blended family Jones built across his three marriages.
Beyond those two credits, no additional acting or professional work has been publicly documented for Caldwell.
Jeri Caldwell Ex-Husband
Caldwell and Quincy Jones met as students at Garfield High School in Seattle. Jones later recalled in interviews that Caldwell was one of the more popular girls at school, and that he gradually noticed her interest in him.
The two married in 1957. Their daughter, Jolie Jones, was born several years earlier, in 1953, before the couple formally wed.
Caldwell and Jones stayed together through his early career moves to New York and then Paris. In 1963, Jones had a daughter, Rachel, from a relationship outside the marriage, which strained his relationship with Caldwell.
Caldwell filed for divorce, and the marriage ended in 1966 after nine years. The two remained on respectful terms afterward, largely through their shared daughter.
After Caldwell’s death in November 2021, Jones posted a public tribute to her on Instagram. He described her as his rock, saying she knew him before anyone else knew his name.
Jeri Caldwell Children
Caldwell and Jones had one daughter together, Jolie Jones, born in 1953. Jolie later worked as an actress and became known for environmental advocacy work.
She is sometimes referred to publicly as Jolie Jones Levine. Jolie was Quincy Jones’s eldest child among his seven children with five different women.
The Bottom Line
Jeri Caldwell married Quincy Jones in 1957 after the two met as students at Garfield High School in Seattle. Their marriage lasted nine years before ending in divorce in 1966.
She supported Jones through his early career moves to New York and Paris, and later made a rare public appearance in the 1994 film Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult. Caldwell also appeared in the 2018 documentary Quincy about her former husband’s life.
Caldwell died in November 2021, and Jones publicly credited her as one of the people who knew him before his fame began. She remained the mother of his eldest daughter, Jolie Jones, throughout her life.
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