Jane Porter

1931 - 2020

Jane Ellen Brown Porter

September 22, 1931 - April 2, 2020

Chapel Hill

On April 2, 2020, the piano fell silent as Jane Ellen Brown Porter of Chapel Hill passed away peacefully in her home. Surrounded by her precious family, with her prized piano nearby, she succumbed after long illness. A mother of three sons, grandmother to eleven, wife of the late W. Travis Porter, III, and a beloved friend to many, Jane was a melodic and inspiring presence in the lives of many. Her father, Walter Louis Brown, was in the piano business, and she took enthusiastically to the keys from an early age. So much so that she was eventually admitted to the Julliard, and of course she played piano in the local competition where she became Miss Bladen County, qualifying for the Miss North Carolina pageant. But her passion was also in education, as the daughter of teacher and principal Ethel Brown in Clarkton, NC, and she opted to attend East Carolina University to major in education. After graduation, she married Travis and soon moved to the Marine Corp Base in Camp Lejeune, where Travis became a Tank Commander and Captain. She and Travis lived briefly in Fort Worth, Texas before moving back to Chapel Hill, where she undertook a teaching assignment in Durham and Travis attended law school with her help. After law school, Jane and Travis established a home in Durham, where they lived for over forty years. They ultimately retired just down the road in Chapel Hill in 2006.

Elegant, beautiful, graceful, charming, sweet, kind, friendly--and yet resolute, and sometimes even stubborn, in her beliefs and priorities, but in a beautiful Southern way. These words were all used accurately and routinely to describe Jane Ellen. She was indeed beautiful inside and out, but also exceptionally talented and intelligent, fiercely loyal and protective of all those she loved. A special education teacher before she had children, she had a great passion for music, and was an accomplished pianist sharing that gift with her family and friends up until the very end. Playing for her family and friends was a favorite pastime, but she needed no audience to be inspired and was often found playing alone, completely swept away by the music. She loved animals, all things Carolina blue, and was a capable competitor out on the tennis courts, despite taking up the sport later in life. "Small but mighty," she liked to say, in a humorous but also serious way—Jane was not to be underestimated.

Even with all her talents, Jane's number one priority was being a wife and a mom, jobs she took seriously and to which she was fully committed. Her life confirmed the old saying, "Behind every great man was a great woman." She was the rock of the family, while Travis excelled in law practice and various leadership roles in the state and the community. Travis was able to accomplish many great things, but he still put his family first, while relying heavily on Jane's leadership in the home. Jane's family knew that Travis' more visible accomplishments were hers too, but characteristically she would never take any credit, always selflessly delighting in his successes with great pride and satisfaction.

Jane was an educator at heart, and education was always a top priority, along with the church. Her boys would always say that she was the sweetest mother in the world--unless you failed to do your homework or go to church. She was very proud of her sons' successes in school and business, and she was not shy about telling everyone. She believed it was the right, and even the obligation, of every mother to brag ceaselessly about her children (always putting them in the best possible light of course), perhaps even guilty of embellishment from time to time.

As if supporting a busy husband and raising three boys was not enough, she also had a significant hand in raising her eleven grandchildren, for whom her presence was a constant. Her love and influence did not stop there either, as she also embraced many of her sons' friends as her own, welcoming and supporting them like family. With love to spare, Jane and Travis took in a student from Japan whose father was the client of one of her sons. Along with her future husband, a student from Mexico, Jane's "Japanese daughter" became an instant part of the suddenly international Porter family. Jane earned the unusual honor of attending the couple's wedding in Japan, where she was celebrated as the official Matchmaker, the person given great respect and credit, in the Shintao tradition, for bringing a couple together. Jane made everyone comfortable, no matter where they came from, and they all loved her for it. She was a phenomenal mother, somehow facilitating school, sports, music, and teaching about life while supporting Travis's career, all while logging millions of miles in the car to taking each of her sons to innumerable games, lessons and events.

Jane was also deeply committed to her faith, spending countless hours in service of her church. Jane and Travis were very active members of Trinity Avenue Presbyterian Church for many decades. Jane served as Deacon, Elder, President of the Women of the Church, Member of the Search Committee, Member of the Flower Guild, and Member of the Sanctuary Renovation Committee, among other assignments. Jane was a quiet but indomitable force behind the scenes at TAPC, making sure the church not only survived but thrived during the critical transition from one beloved minister to the next following the retirement of long-time minister. Dr. William Crompton Bennett, who was the godfather to her children. As a member of the search committee, she was instrumental in recruiting Rev. Donovan Drake and supporting the Rev. Kent Clise in his transition before Donovan. Not surprisingly, she took a great interest in the music of the church, and she helped to organize, support and fund the signature musical presentations that became a great tradition at Trinity Ave. Presbyterian.

Jane's story started in Clarkton, NC where she was born on September 22, 1931. She and her brother Louis were raised there in Bladen County. Jane flourished as a pianist as a young girl, playing at the Clarkton Presbyterian Church as well as other churches in the southeastern part of the state at their invitation. . She was crowned Ms. Bladen County, earning a spot in the Miss North Carolina Pageant and offered a scholarship to the Julliard School in New York, famously turning down both to marry Travis and start a family. Travis's "brown-eyed girl from Clarkton" went on to earn her degree in education at East Carolina, becoming a teacher in Durham soon thereafter to help pay for Travis' law school education. While she wouldn't see any of her choices as sacrifices, we are all indebted to her for her selfless dedication to her family.

Jane is survived, and will be greatly missed, by her three sons, Gregory Douglas Porter and his wife Kathleen, Daryl Geoffrey Porter and his former wife Julie, Christopher Kelly Porter and his wife Jennifer, Greg's children Tray, Walker, Amy, Jessica and Trent, Daryl's children Lauren, Grant and Jackson, and Christopher's children Collins, Riles and Hayes. May the music play on in her memory.

The funeral service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 11, 2020, at the Old Carrboro Cemetery, near where Travis and Jane lived during law school, and where Travis worked during college. Flowers may be sent to Hall-Wynne and will be brought to the graveside. The funeral will be a private ceremony, but it will be streamed live for viewing by her many friends and family who cannot attend. The Rev. Katie Crowe of Trinity Avenue Presbyterian will preside over the funeral, and she has offered graciously to host a celebration of Jane's life, at the church, with a date still to be determined.