On March 1, 1924, Andrew James Jolly and Nellie (Clark) Jolly welcomed a new baby into the world, a son they named Andrew Jordan.
Like his father, the second A.J. Jolly chose a life of public service just on a different path.
As a tail gunner in the Army Air Corps during World War II, he survived almost three dozen missions and earned the Air Medal with silver oak leaf cluster.
After the war, he entered a profession he did not particularly enjoy. “Politics had no particular appeal to me,” he claimed in one of interview.
Despite that feeling, he served four terms as Judge of Campbell County, starting in 1957. In that office, he pushed for the creation of a county park, the improvement of health care for seniors, and the building of Lakeside Place Nursing Home. He supported the expansion of St. Luke Hospital, set up a juvenile detention center, and worked to bring water lines to the county’s rural areas.
The county park was named in his honor.
His colleague Lambert Hehl said Jolly was “respected throughout the state and he was known for his financial wizardry in developing package plans for financing. He was able to take a small county budget and make it work for him.”
Another acquaintance likened Jolly to a “statesman” in the Commonwealth. “When you walked through the (state) capitol with Andy Jolly, it was like you were with the governor, because everybody knew him.”
After retiring from office in 1973, Jolly returned to his law practice.
In his private life, he and his wife lived on a farm on Racetrack Road. He enjoyed golf, fishing, and spending time with his horses.
His sense of humor and ever-present cigar were his trademarks.
He died on January 12, 1989, after heart bypass surgery in Houston. One obituary declared that he had “changed the landscape of Campbell County.”