Martha Ann Stokes

Martha Ann Kavanaugh Stokes, 91, who lived her life with passion, love, and kindness, died with family around her on August 15, 2025, in Norfolk, Virginia.

Martha was born on August 8, 1934, in Bunkie, Louisiana to Jennings Gordon Kavanaugh and Eura Voorhies Pearce Kavanaugh. She grew up on her family's sugarcane plantation in Louisiana where she developed independence, character, and a love of nature and beauty. As a young girl she loved the late fall harvest with its cooler weather, sitting in the shade of a willow tree with a sweet sugarcane. She was happiest riding her horse Buck.

She attended college at Louisiana State University as a music major and graduated from the College of William and Mary with a concentration in poetry and music. While at William and Mary, her sister Carolyn introduced Martha to Lane Stokes. They married promptly and established a family in Norfolk. Theirs was a storybook partnership based on love and respect, always passionately working on a shared project, and raising a family was their most passionate project. With four children, the home quickly filled with friends, laughter, and rambunctious pranks. Martha presided over it all with a sense of humor, cultivating the best in her children and their friends.

Martha made dinnertime sacred to her family. Friends were always welcome. Meals were accompanied by stories, memories, laughter, and jokes, as well as debates and challenges to assumptions and closely held beliefs.

Martha encouraged all sports and inspired a love of nature, especially the Elizabeth River. Martha was a talented golfer, our family champion. When her children's interest in sailing grew, Martha and Lane joined the fun, with a Hampton One Design sailboat that they raced on the Chesapeake Bay. Always trying to improve, Martha and Lane attended sailing school where she earned the "Iron-Fist" award for heaving a fallen crew member back in the boat while she kept her other hand steady on the tiller to win the championship race. "Iron Fist" became a favorite family nickname.

Martha loved gardening and made it an ongoing family project. A Master Gardener, she enjoyed her garden clubs and flower arranging. Her love and gift for garden design led her to create "Marlan Gardens" a landscape design company. With her daughter Ann as partner and her husband as the "hired" labor, Marlan Gardens transformed many Norfolk yards into beautiful landscapes.

Martha also appreciated and loved art. She was a devoted Chrysler Museum volunteer serving as docent, board member, committee member, and committee chair. She helped create the Chrysler Museum's Mowbray Arch Society now known as The Masterpiece Art Society. She and Lane studied and collected art, and accumulated an impressive art collection. Traveling often and widely, they walked the world's great museums and visited galleries regularly, developing many friends among gallerists, artists, and art collectors.

Martha's faith guided and sustained her always. She studied issues of faith deeply, exploring connections between faith, art, and life. She loved and appreciated her church community at Trinity, serving in the nursery as the go-to person for crying babies, as mentor to struggling students at Park Place school, and participating in the church's weekly women's bible study.

Martha Ann is predeceased by Thomas Lane Stokes, MD her husband of 47 years. She is survived by her sister Carolyn Rogers; four children, Thomas Lane Stokes Jr. (Selina Basnight Stokes), J. Randolph Stokes (Kelly Outten Stokes), Gordon Kavanaugh Stokes (Kerri Rae Stokes), and Ann Pearce Stokes, all of Norfolk, Virginia. She is also survived by nine grandchildren and one great grandchild, John Randolph Stokes, Jr. (Quincy Bock Stokes) and their son Lawrence Lane Stokes, Samuel Outten Stokes (Alicia Blumenthal Stokes), Edward Lane Stokes (Christine Melchor Stokes), Thomas Lane Stokes, III, Mary Lyall Stokes, Gordon Kavanaugh Stokes, Jr. (Agustina Quiroga Stokes), Ian Alexander Stokes (Emily MacDonell Stokes), AnnBurns Stokes Morrison, and Jo James Lane Morrison.

Martha's grace, spirit of happiness, and sense of humor shone through even in her later years when Alzheimer's disease took over. The family wishes to extend a heartfelt thank you to Dr. Julie Damman, and all her physicians and care givers, the skilled staff at Harbor's Edge Memory Center, and Suncrest Hospice.

Burial will be private. A memorial service will be held at Trinity Presbyterian Church, 1600 Colonial Avenue in Norfolk on October 14 at 11:00 am.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Chrysler Museum, One Memorial Place, Norfolk, VA 23510, or to your charity of choice.