James Harvey Lane

James Harvey Lane Sr., 95, passed peacefully on Monday, November 3, 2025, in Efland, North Carolina, surrounded by laughter, stories, and the love of his family. Born on May 28, 1930 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas to William Keeth and Kathryn Westbrook Lane. Harvey served in the United States Air Force.

Harvey's life was too rich to simply summarize. He was a husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather whose steady patience and dry wit are forever family legend. A man of true confidence, he preferred to sit quietly until he had something worth saying, so when he did, everyone listened. The same must also be said for his sense of humor: calm, dry, and witty.

He was devoted to his late wife, Joan Wolcott Lane, the love of his life and the gravitational center of his universe. Together they built a marriage that was both a partnership and a performance, equal measures of gentle teasing and absolute devotion. To watch them was to understand that love could be funny, stubborn, and entirely unconditional. Their marriage was the root system that held an entire family upright. One that now carries more than 800 years of memory in its branches.

He knew quality and accessibility were not opposites but companions. He took pleasure seriously, believing it was how we show respect for food, for company, and for life itself. He served caviar with champagne but told better jokes over hamburgers. His legacy is not in the miles he traveled or the things he owned, but in the countless ways he made people feel known, safe, often amused, and always respected.

He is survived by his children Kati (Wayne), Jim (Ginny), Susan (Larry) and Liz (Carole), his 9 grandchildren, and 9 great-grandchildren, and a family whose combined memory will continue to echo his laughter, his recipes, his wit, and his stories.

When Harvey spoke of his grandchildren, his pride was evident, whether they excelled in pro baseball, teaching, running your own business, the corporate world, or an engineering one. He was so many things to so many people: your friend, your grandfather, your advisor, your critic, your cheerleader, your chef, your pool shark, or your comedian. If you knew Harvey, then you know exactly who he was to you.

Not long ago, Harvey shared this:

"If I were asked to give a commencement address, I would say you have finished the easiest part of your life. Now comes the hard part, your career. When you finish your career, I hope you do not say these four words: I wish I had."

So, in keeping with Papa's tradition of five o'clock cocktails, we suggest something he would have much preferred over solemnity. Let's all pour a drink and at five o'clock raise a toast to Harvey:

"Here's to a life where he never had to say, I wish I had…"

To the man who was many things, but never needed to be anything more than our Papa.