Lynchburg native Jane Baber White has no formal training as a historian. But over time, she’s turned into one. A former gardener and director of theOld City Cemetery, she’s authored 19 historical highway markers, all in the city.
White developed her craft during her 27 years with the cemetery, which has its own marker.
“What was noteworthy (about it) was the fact that so many of people buried here were African-American – 80-percent. That was huge,” said White. She said that helped the 27-acre cemetery qualify for a state marker, representing the kind of diversity the Virginia Department of Historic Resources is looking for.
The Old City Cemetery had also been known for its Civil War Burials and Removals. Outside of that, the White said the grounds needed some work, and volunteers came out of the woodwork to help its appearance.
“The problem was that the cemetery, other than the Confederate section (where 2,200 soldiers from 14 states are buried), had never been cared for,” she said. “It was an extra big job, of not only the downed trees, but rediscovering the history of the place.”
I just like Lynchburg. I think it would be wonderful if other people would work on things on other parts (of the state.)
White also put together a book on Old City Cemetery’s history in 2009.
As for the other 18 state historical markers (and counting, she has one more in the works) White says she never had a long-range plan, but it’s something she’s learned along the way.
“It’s not a scholarly history; it’s more history of everyday things – that I hope somebody else will think that’s cool to know,” she said.
White says until not very long ago, most all the markers in Lynchburg were about World Wars, the military, or white men.
She partially credits her time as a landscape designer at the Anne Spencer Garden on Lynchburg’s Pierce Street Renaissance District, a predominately African-American neighborhood, for changing that.
In the early 1980’s, she was contacted by Lynchburg native and Spencer's daughter Chauncey Spencer (one of the original Tuskegee Airmen; he has his own marker.) He wanted the garden at her home restored to its appearance when she lived there.
White says that whole experience inspired her years later.
“It changed my life,” she said. “That one visit, that one day. I never had anything speak to me so – I knew how to restore that garden.”
Other more recent markers authored by White include Helen Pesci Wood (an operatic soprano and arts educator who performed at Carnegie Hall), James Rives Childs (a U.S. Ambassador to four countries helped 1,200 Hungarian Jews escape the Holocaust) and most recently, the Academy of Music Theater. That site, which closed its doors in 1958, reopened earlier this month.
The process of initiating state historical markers are very specific. Any involving a person can only be done after he or she has passed away. Other markers about a place or activity should be covering a period of at least 50 years ago.
White also says topic for proposed markers needs to hold interest outside of a community, and all the information must be heavily documented. Each marker also requires a single sponsor, or series of donors. Markers cost just over $1700.
Just last week, the Department of Historic Resources approved ten new ones. White authored both of those in Lynchburg.
One honors the Nuclear Ship Savannah, the world’s first nuclear-powered ship. Its first crew trained at Lynchburg College. The other will be dedicated outside the childhood home of Rosalie S. Morton (which is the present site of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.) Morton led a nationwide public health initiative for the American Medical Association, starting in 1909. White says dedication ceremonies for each will be held next spring.
White laughs off the notion that one day, there will be a historical marker dedicated in honor of her. But she does admit the idea has been brought up.
“I am honestly doing what I love doing,” she said. “I just am fascinated by it.”
