Jane Woodruff Lucas

November 28, 2018

Jane Woodruff Lucas passed away on November 28, 2018 at her home in Charlotte. She had turned eighty-nine years old four days earlier.

Jane Campbell Woodruff Lucas ​was born November 24, 1929 in Anniston, Alabama, the daughter of Dr. Gerald “Fuzzy” Woodruff and Flora Campbell Woodruff. She attended Mary Baldwin College and graduated from the University of Alabama, where she was a journalism major and a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority, in 1952. Jane’s pride in her Crimson Tide was strong and eternal. After college, she worked as a​ train hostess on the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad until she became engaged to Robert Theodore (Ted) Lucas, Jr. of Shreveport, Louisiana, who was in his last year of medical school. Jane and Ted married in 1954 at Anniston’s Parker Memorial Baptist Church. Their first year of marriage was spent in San Francisco, where Ted interned and Jane wrote thank-you notes and​ worked at the elegant I. Magnin department store. 

In 1955, they moved to New Orleans for Ted’s pediatric residency, which was interrupted when he was called into the Air Force. Jane joined him in​ Japan and their first child, Jane Campbell Lucas, was born there in 1957.

After another stint in New Orleans, Jane and Ted moved to Charlotte in 1959, where Ted joined the Nalle Clinic. They stopped off in Anniston on the way to have their​ second child, Robert Theodore Lucas III. Daniel Dudley Lucas completed the family in 1960. 

Charlotte quickly became home to this Alabama girl. Jane’s community activities included membership and leadership in the Colonia Book Club, the ​Green Thumb Garden Club, the ​Charlotte Speech and Hearing Center, the Halifax Convention Chapter of the DAR, and the Mecklenburg Medical Auxiliary. Her most rewarding service was as a member of her beloved Myers Park Baptist Church, where she was one of the church’s early female Deacons and a Life Deacon, a Sunday School teacher, and a long-time chair of both the Orientation and Altar Committees. Countless members of Myers Park Baptist were first warmly welcomed and then convinced to join the church by Jane, who was a charming but determined recruiter. Jane was an enthusiastic and gracious hostess, opening her Sherwood Avenue home to family and friends at every opportunity. She loved her many friends in Charlotte and never lost touch with her growing-up friends in Alabama.

Jane​ was blessed with a devoted husband, three loving children, and their spouses who hit the mother-in-law jackpot, Cam’s husband John (Buddy) Wester​, Bob’s wife Perry Liles Lucas, and Dan’s wife Mary Hall Lucas. She adored her nine remarkable grandchildren, David Lucas Vorhoff, Jane Campbell Wester, Robert Theodore Lucas IV, George Woodruff Lucas, Jane Perry​ Lucas, Catherine Campbell Lucas, Daniel Dudley Lucas Jr., Grace St. Clair Lucas, and Caroline Bellamy Lucas.

​Jane ​is also survived by her two brothers, Gerald Woodruff Jr. and Roy Woodruff, and sisters-in-law Betty Woodruff and Kay Woodruff. She loved being Aunt Jane to her nieces and nephews, Rhett Woodruff Warner and Gerry, Bowen, David, Margaret, Charles, and Earl Woodruff.         

​In h​er final years at Southminster Retirement Community, Jane accepted her limitations with her usual grace. She never lost her sweet and loving sparkle, and we will miss her every day.

A memorial service will be held at Myers Park Baptist Church on Saturday, December 8th at 11:00 a.m. If you wish to remember Jane with a memorial, donations would be welcome to the Church that meant so much to her (Myers Park Baptist Church, 1900 Queens Road, Charlotte NC 28207).

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Comments

  • Jane gilbert

    My condolences and prayers have been with all of Jane’s family. I Deeply regretted I could not attend her memorial, for health reasons.
    Thinking especially of Cam—my Colonia Book Club mate—and her family.

  • Susan Kennedy Brown

    My thoughts and prayers are with you, Cam, and I am so sorry that I will not be able to attend the service for your Mother this Saturday as I am hosting a wedding shower for a dear friend. Please give your brother, Gerald, and wife Betty my warmest regards as well; they are both very dear people. Your Mother's obituary was so sweet and I loved reading about their first year of marriage. So cute that you would include that she spent her time writing thank you notes - so very "Alabama" southern and true!

  • Louise Jordan-Norman

    Please accept our condolences on Jane's passing. Both David (Norman) and I fondly recall Jane's grace and good humor while we attended Myers Park Baptist Church. May your many memories of Jane bring you peace.

  • Phyllis Long

    Cam,
    Although I only had the good fortune to chat with your mother a few times, I always saw that "sparkle" mentioned in her obituary. I know you will miss her terribly and I hope that your wonderful memories of her will comfort you and the rest of your family in the days to come.