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Anderson McQueen Funeral Homes
Jane Campbell Moore Roberts
August 19th, 1933 - January 20th, 2015
Jane Campbell Moore Roberts, died peacefully in a nursing home in St. Petersburg, Florida, on January 20, 2015, having been in declining health for several years. She was 81. She was a remarkable woman: handsome to look at, a talented musician, accomplished horsewoman, champion skater, archivist and scholar of her family heritage, and amateur classical scholar. A product of a far-traveled family rooted in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and in the US Navy, she spent her adult life in St. Petersburg, Florida, and secondarily in the Sewanee-Monteagle area of the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee. She was a loving daughter, sister, wife, mother, aunt, and grandmother. She was born on August 19, 1933, in San Diego, California, to Granville Alexander Moore, then a Lt. (j.g) USN and Emily Woodward Moore, both originally from Lexington, Virginia. She spent much of her early childhood in Shanghai, where her father was stationed on the USS Oahu, a gunboat on the US Navy's Yangtze Patrol. On August 20, 1937, she and her mother with a group of US Navy families were evacuated to Manila from Shanghai in the midst of the Japanese Army's battle to take the city from the Republic of China. An air battle was in progress when the American refugees---all residents of the International Settlement--reached the dock; and the river was under bombardment as they boarded the ship, an incident that Jane vividly remembered. On March 8, 1938, she, her mother, and her recently born brother, Granville Alexander, Jr., sailed from Manila for Shanghai, then under Japanese occupation after November 1937. Her Navy family went on to live a typically peripatetic life, but with a more civilian experience in Lexington, Virginia, from 1941 to 1945 for the duration of World War II, giving them a taste of what had been the family hometown for almost two centuries. In 1951 she graduated from Menninger High School in Charleston, South Carolina, a member of the last class to do so. The historic public girl's school was soon to be demolished and merged with the former boy's High School of Charleston. She enrolled in Miami University of Oxford, Ohio, where her father had commanded the NROTC program from 1945 to 1948. As a junior, she was inducted into their chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, and was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. While at college, her family was residing in Newport, Rhode Island due to her father's assignment with the Naval War College. Jane spent her college summers at home, and met Albert Roberts III, then a Lt. (j.g) aboard USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., a destroyer based there. They were married in the chapel of St. George's School, Newport, in 1954, just as her husband left the Navy for civilian life. Her father, who walked her down the aisle at St. George's, was to become the War College's Chief of Staff. Jane's rite of passage upon marriage meant a wedding journey to St. Petersburg, Florida, where Al joined his father, Albert Roberts, Jr., an investment banker. Eventually both men became partners in Goodbody & Co. Al's career was on an upward trajectory as a stockbroker-financial advisor. He was a success at his trade and career; and he greatly enjoyed both, finally retiring after 30 years with Smith Barney in 2007. In 1958, her father having retired from the Navy, accepted a job as Commandant of the Navy Program of Admiral Farragut Academy, in St. Petersburg, a post he held for two decades. Thus Jane found herself anchored in Florida by the extended households of both sets of her children's grandparents. From 1969 to 1978 too, her brother, Alexander, was on the faculty at the University of Florida in Gainesville. The connection of the two families was more complete as her two brothers-in-law were both graduates of Washington and Lee University, while her two sisters-in-law were fellow alumnae at Randolph Macon Women's College in Virginia, as was Jane's mother. Also, Jane, her mother, and mother-in-law shared a devotion to the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, contributing their time to supporting the new institution that celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. After Jane's father passed away in 1983, she developed a close relationship with the shipmates, and their spouses, of the USS Herndon, the World War II destroyer her father had commanded. Its devoted crew held regular reunions for "The Lucky Herndon." After the Invasion of Sicily, the ship's responsibilities were to silence German defenses on Utah Beach, for which the sailors named her "first one in at Normandy." Jane requested, assembled and typed out the memoirs of all its crew, a project that turned into several volumes. With pride, she often remarked on the outstanding writing skills of the ship's enlisted men, few of whom had any high school education. In September, 2004 Jane and Al celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary as they participated in a Herndon reunion in Washington, D.C. In 1990 she and Al began to spend time at a home they built in Monteagle, Tennessee, near the University of the South in Sewanee. Al had graduated from Sewanee, and was an enthusiastic supporter of the University. Jane had left Miami University after her junior year to be married, and she used her second home to take college courses, concentrating on classics. She learned to read ancient Greek, and entertained herself by translating Sappho. She wrote an English translation of some books of the Iliad, in colloquial speech aimed at U.S. high school students. Jane's mother died in 1991, leaving one less link to Jane's past in St. Petersburg, and hastening her transition to part-time residency in Tennessee. For twelve years she spent more than half of her time in Monteagle, drawn by the idyllic environment of "the Mountain." Her husband, still devoted to his career, set the goal of spending every fifth week with her when she was there for a long haul. One of the last scholarly-archival tasks Jane set for herself was to transcribe all the wartime letters between her parents. Out of necessity her father's notes were cryptic, while her mother's letters were masterpieces, chronicles of daily life in wartime, from a family held together by ample love from extended-family relatives. Jane came into this world endowed with intelligence, musical aptitude, strength, sporting skills, and physical beauty. She was blessed with loving and well-educated parents, whose family circles from around Lexington, Virginia, were likewise endowed with ancestral traditions rich in learning and the Presbyterian faith. Fortune brought her a husband who was handsome, loving, well-educated, hardworking, and endowed with a network of loving and talented siblings and nephews and nieces. Jane delighted in her four beautiful offspring. Alas, fortune snatched away her precious last-born Tate in the full bloom of his childhood. She struggled against this sorrow but never completely overcame it. Her endeavors in music, horsemanship, skating, family scholarship, and classical studies were all excellent, but they did not resolve her loss. It is to her lasting credit that she struggled as fiercely and as determinedly as she did. Jane is survived by her brother, G. Alexander Moore of Los Angeles, California, his partner Levon Mardikyan; her daughter, Alison, of St. Petersburg, son-in-law Gene Hardage, granddaughters Georgia and Rachel Hardage; her son Alex of St. Petersburg; her son Colin of Tampa, daughter-in-law Christina, and grandson Clark Roberts. A funeral service is scheduled for April 14, 2015, in All Saints' Chapel at the University of the South in Sewanee. Interment of her ashes will follow in the University burial ground.
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Anderson McQueen Funeral Homes
At Anderson McQueen Funeral Homes, we take pride in being the foremost full-service funeral home, setting the gold standard in compassionate care, exemplary service, and state-of-the-art facilities. Since 1952, we have dedicated ourselves to offering customizable memorial services that truly reflect the individuality and spirit of your loved ones. Our commitment to personalized service options is not just about honoring memories; it's about creating a meaningful and healing experience for families during their time of need....
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