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IVOR – Jane R. Lowe died on March 3, 2022, in Norwood Rehabilitation Center in Norwood, Massachusetts after a lengthy illness. She was born in Southampton County to the late Russell Landon and Ruth Jones Lowe on July 24, 1934. She attended school in Ivor and graduated from Ivor High School in 1951. She continued her studies at Kee Business College in Norfolk. After graduating, Jane worked as a legal secretary for A.E.S. “Gi” Stephens who served as the 27th Lieutenant Governor of Virginia in Smithfield, then for Arlington Realty in Arlington, Virginia. She returned to the Ivor area in 1958 and worked as a secretary at Star Beaton Chevrolet and the Suffolk law firm Watkins and Parr. After working as a secretary for a number of years, Jane went into accounting and worked as the head of the accounting office at Manning Nursing Home in Portsmouth for 15 years before founding her own business Bookkeeping by Rae from which she retired in 1999.

Jane began taking piano lessons as a small child and enjoyed playing the piano, especially with her father on fiddle and her brother on guitar. She played at numerous community events and programs and was always asked to play old classics like “Down Yonder” and “Shine on Harvest Moon.” She also enjoyed dancing and took classes and participated in dance competitions at the International School of Dance and choreographed and performed her own dances to some of the music she loved.

Jane was a birthright member of Corinth Friends Meeting. In 1996, she joined Somerton Meeting in Suffolk, where she served as an elder of the meeting and taught Sunday school. She was also pianist and choir director. She arranged musical worship services for the meeting several times a year combining scripture and hymns. Her Christmas and Easter programs were highlights of the year at the meeting and friends there will long remember the Smoky Mountain Hoedown, which featured old time hymns as well as video of beautiful mountain scenery. While teaching Sunday school, she developed an interest in knowing more about the Bible and took a series of courses at Liberty University and received a certificate for completion of Old and New Testament studies.

Jane is survived by a son, Craig Collins and his wife, Tammy of Fancy Gap, Virginia; a daughter Lisa Mercado and her husband, Jose of Norfolk, Massachusetts; six grandchildren, Landon Collins of Charlotte, North Carolina, Blake Collins of Fancy Gap, Virginia and Monica, Julian, Lorenzo and Adrian Mercado of Norfolk, Massachusetts; two great-grandchildren; a brother, Tony Lowe and his wife, Judy of Fancy Gap; two nephews, Rusty Lowe of Berlin and Jayton Lowe of Sedley and two nieces, Stacy Lowe Richards of Elberon and Ruth Lowe Saunders of Chesterfield and a number of great-nieces and nephews, and two very close cousins, Darlene Grady of Elberon and Sidney Simms of Ivor. In addition to her parents, she was predeceased by her brother and sister-in-law, Earle and Reba Lowe, grandson, Aaron Collins, great-nephew, James Russell Lowe.

There will be a grave side service at Ivor Cemetery at 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 12, 2022, with the Rev. Richard Wilcox and Tony Lowe officiating. Friends who would like to join the funeral procession are invited to gather at R.W. Baker & Co. Funeral Home in Wakefield at 10:30 a.m. Jane was an animal lover and a supporter of the ASPCA. If friends wish to make a memorial contribution rather than flowers, the family requests that such gifts be given to the ASPCA or local animal shelters. R.W. Baker & Co. Funeral Home, Wakefield Chapel is serving the family. Condolences may be registered at RWBakerFH.com.