Obituaries / LJWorld.com

Obituaries

Jane V. Barber, 90, passed away peacefully at her home in Lawrence on July 3, 2012. She was born on July 27, 1921, in Kansas City, Missouri, to Nathan Thomas Veatch, Jr. and Amarette Weaver Veatch. She had two siblings, Nancy Veatch, who died in childhood, and Aileen Veatch Callaway, who predeceased her in 1998.
Her great-grandfather and great-grandmother, Lathrop and Susan Bullene, were among the early settlers of Lawrence. Lathrop Bullene established the Bullene Dry Goods Store in 1857, which was later sold to his son-in-law, A.D. Weaver, and became Weaver’s Department Store. Her uncle and aunt, Arthur B. Weaver and Nell DeHart Weaver, were well-known citizens of Lawrence for many years.
In 1915 her father, N.T. Veatch, Jr., co-founded Black & Veatch in Kansas City, today one of the largest engineering firms in the United States with over 100 offices worldwide.
She was graduated from Southwest High School in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1938. She was thereafter graduated from Bradford College in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1940, and the University of Kansas in 1942. Shortly after the Second World War she married Robert M. Murray, Jr., of Kansas City, to whom she was married until 1956. She thereafter married Richard A. Barber, of Lawrence, in 1960. They were married until his death in 1998.
She is survived by her children, Thomas V. Murray and Stephanie A. Murray, both of Lawrence, and her daughter-in- law, Cindy Murray, also of Lawrence; two grandchildren, Anne Emert and spouse Mark Emert, of Lawrence, and Thomas V. Murray, Jr. and spouse Lisa Murray, of Santa Monica, California; and her great-grandchild, Samuel Thomas Emert of Lawrence.
She was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Lawrence, Pi Beta Phi sorority, the Chancellor’s Club, Chapter AZ of P.E.O., the Twentieth Century Club, the Amigas Club, the Lawrence Country Club, The River Club and the Jane Club. She was an extraordinarily kind and gentle person, and was involved in numerous philanthropic activities in Lawrence and Kansas City.
Services will be held on Monday, July 9, 2012, at 2:00 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church. There will be no visitation. Private burial will be at Oak Hill Cemetery.
The family suggests memorials to the Lawrence Memorial Hospital Endowment Association, the K.U. Endowment Association, and The Family Conservancy of Kansas City, Missouri, which may be sent in care of Warren-McElwain Mortuary.
Online condolences may be sent to www.warrenmcelwain.com.