1980
One of ten artists given Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Visual Arts by President Jimmy Carter at the White House.

1981
Receives honorary doctorate in humane letters, Suffolk University, Boston, Massachusetts.

1982
April 27: Husband Pierre passes in Washington, D.C.

1983
May 16: Washington, D.C. television reporter Max Robinson purchases Leigh Whipper and arranges for Madame Lillian Evanti to go to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., and Chou-Fleur et Citrouille, Paris to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It takes almost six years to complete the acquisitions.

Abiyi Ford presents her film Loïs Mailou Jones: Fifty Years of Painting at Howard University.

Paints and exhibits work in Martha's Vineyard during the summer of 1983.

1987
May: Receives honorary doctorate in humane letters, Howard University with First Lady, Barbara Bush, and Camille Cosby.

1988
Commissioned to design 366th World War II Infantry Regiment commemorative window, Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel, Howard University.

1989
May: Travels to France to visit Céline and completes 8 paintings in Impressionist and Post-Impressionist style, including large en plein air landscapes. She felt she had come “full circle” as impressionism was her favorite style when she first went to France fifty years earlier and admired the work of master artists.

Paints at Edgartown studio, Martha's Vineyard during the summer of 1989.

November: Meets President and Mrs. Jacques Chirac of France at a reception arranged by the U.S. State Department in New York City and presents them with Le Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris, 1938.

November 3: Loïs has a heart attack and heart bypass surgery ten days later.

1990
January: Solo retrospective The World of Loïs Mailou Jones travels the country with 17 exhibits. She speaks at a reception at each location. Exhibition travels until August 1996.

1991
October 26 and 27: Visiting professor at Harvard and Radcliffe, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

November 2: Danny Glover's Bomani Art Gallery in San Francisco held a solo exhibition called The Art of Loïs Mailou Jones featuring a representation of her contemporary work. Exhibition held until January 1993.

1992
October: The Ascent of Ethiopia is chosen as cover art for new Harvard University Press book To Wake the Nations: Race in the Making of American Literature.

Visiting artist at Harvard College until 1993

1993
August: President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton meet Loïs at the Granary Gallery on Martha's Vineyard and select Breezy Day at Gay Head for the White House.

1994
The Life and Art of Loïs Mailou Jones, written by former student Dr. Tritobia Hayes Benjamin, is published.

November 3: Corcoran Gallery birthday party for Loïs during The World of Loïs Mailou Jones exhibit and a public apology for previous prejudicial policies.

1995
Lecture— African through the Eyes of Women Artists: The Art Perspective of Lois Jones

September: Designs poster for Cry, the Beloved Country with James Earl Jones and Richard Harris. The original art is given to Nelson Mandela.

1997
April: Arranges for Pierre's work to be donated to the National Postal Museum.

Les Fétiches and The Ascent of Ethiopia are shown in an international exhibit Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance.

1998
June 9: Loïs passes in Washington, D.C. June 20 and is buried in Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard, MA.

Howard University holds special exhibit Remembering Loïs.