Vera Jane Latshaw

Vera Jane Latshaw, 89, passed away on Sunday, June 12, 2011 at Luther Acres, Lititz. Jane, as she was known to her many friends, was the daughter of the late Richard M. and Esther (Kurtz) Stockton. She was preceded in death by her brother, Richard K. (Bud) Stockton and half-sister, Dorothy Hamp Goodman.  Born and raised in Lancaster County, Jane was an alumna of J.P. McCaskey High School and a lifelong member of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Lancaster. She was the widow of Ward P. Latshaw, Jr., who taught in the Manheim Township School District and served as the first principal of that district’s middle school.  A graduate of Millersville State Teachers College, she taught social studies at Donegal High School for one year, geography in the Manheim Township Middle School for 16 years, and reading and earth science at Hempfield Junior High School for an additional five years. She also earned a Master’s Degree in Counseling from Millersville and was a certified school psychologist.  Upon her retirement from teaching, she served for ten years as a volunteer with the Lancaster Association for the Blind as a news reader for the Radio Talking Library. She also volunteered with the Lancaster County Department of Probation and Parole as an onsite psychologist in the Lancaster County Prison, providing counseling to inmates and psychological assessments as a part of pre-sentencing investigations. She was also instrumental in helping to establish the Mental Health Program at the prison. In addition, she served for five years as chairpersonof the Child Abuse Prevention/Encounter Program at the Lancaster County Council of Churches.  Jane was an avid bridge player, an expert at knitting and a voracious reader of mystery novels. In her later years, she and her husband enjoyed traveling throughout the United States and Canada in their camper. During her travels, she took hundreds of photographs of landforms, vegetation and animals. She also collected and cataloged a number of geological samples. Her collection of minerals and fossils she later donated toMillersville University, while her photographic slides were donated to Franklin & Marshall College. She is survived by her sons, Ward P. Latshaw III, Lancaster, and Stefan K. Latshaw, Lititz, as well as by four grandchildren and three great grandchildren.  Services will be held on Tuesday, June 14, at 9:00 a.m. at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Lancaster, with a family visitation beginning at 8:30 a.m. A private interment at Indiantown Gap Military Reservation will follow. The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, a donation be made to Hospice of Lancaster.  For other information or to send an online condolence to the family, visit our website:

www.kasnyderfuneralhome.com