Jane Baber White died on June 17, 2024, at the age of eighty-four. Her obituary describes her as a “pioneer, innovator, activist, and community bridge-builder.” Southern Garden History Society members will remember her with great fondness and admiration for her tireless work to preserve historic gardens. Jane was a consequential member of the SGHS board of directors, serving two terms from 2009 to 2015. She coordinated the 2013 SGHS annual meeting in Lynchburg, Virginia, during which we celebrated the Society’s thirtieth anniversary. The meeting’s ambitious agenda highlighted significant historic gardens and landscapes from Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest to Lynchburg’s Old City Cemetery (OCC) and the house and gardens of Harlem Renaissance poet Anne Spencer.
Long before serving on the SGHS board, Jane was bringing attention to preservation issues through articles and activism. In 1993, she undertook the renovation of the long-neglected OCC, transforming the twenty-six-acre site over time into a place for the living, famous for its museums, significant collection of antique roses, and goats. By celebrating the diverse range of people buried there she established the site as a tourist destination and as an anchor for community and economic development. She served as volunteer director and restoration chair of the cemetery for almost thirty years and, in 2005, she contributed her first lead article for Magnolia, “A Gravegarden of Old Garden Roses—Lynchburg’s Old City Cemetery.” During the early 2000s Jane coordinated an annual horticulture field day focused on the historic rose collections of noted rosarian Carl Cato, and with Washington Post columnist Henry Mitchell as keynote speaker.
But her most notable restoration efforts focused on saving the gardens and gardening history of Anne Spencer in downtown Lynchburg. In 1987 Jane first published an article in the American Horticultural Society’s journal, entitled “Restoration of a Poet’s Garden,” in which she described the challenging restoration effort she spearheaded beginning in 1982, at the request of Anne Spencer’s son, Chauncey Spencer. With the support and maintenance assistance of the Hillside Garden Club, the Spencer Garden and its remarkable story is now known internationally. The garden itself, now heavily shaded by a massive southern red oak and a southern pecan, has been simplified from the exuberant flower beds evident in 1920s photographs. Yet it retains the spirit of the small garden, which Spencer wrote was “half my world.”
Jane authored three books documenting her work – The Book of Attributes of the Living Horticultural Collections of the Old City Cemetery Museums and Arboretum (2008), Once Upon a Time – A Cemetery Story (2009), and Lessons Learned from a Poet’s Garden, The Restoration of the Historic Garden of Harlem Renaissance Poet Anne Spencer, Lynchburg, Virginia (2011).
Most recently she was the driving force behind twenty-five Virginia historical highway markers, elevating stories of influential women and people of color in the Lynchburg area. Her final highway marker project honored the late rosarian Carl Cato, which was dedicated in April 2022. A few months later, on July 30, Jane spoke at OCC for the memorial dedication of a bronze and stone plaque honoring heirloom apple authority Tom Burford.
In one of the last few emails I received from Jane, she lamented that her traveling days, especially to annual SGHS meetings, were over. But, ever the constant cheerleader, she wrote of reading every word of the most recent issue of Magnolia and of keeping “save the date” notices on her calendar. She has been described as an elegant ambassador and a determined trailblazer, often being compared to the Society’s legendary Flora Ann Bynum. There is perhaps no greater accolade than this.
Jane Baber White Obituary 2024 – Tharp Funeral Home & Crematory
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