Jane Moore Stockhausen

Jane Moore Stockhausen, 96, Gracious Matriarch and Southern Belle Dies

Jane Moore Stockhausen, a woman of warmth, elegance, and boundless generosity,

passed away peacefully on December 13, 2024, at her daughter’s home in Lakewood

Ranch, Florida. She was 96.

Born on September 16, 1928, in what is now the Jackson House Museum in Lexington,

Virginia, Ms. Stockhausen grew up on Whistle Creek Farm, a dairy farm nestled in the

Shenandoah Valley. The youngest in a family of five, she was imbued with the fortitude and

grace that would define her life.

A natural leader, she was president of her class at James Madison University and was

crowned the Apple Blossom Queen—early distinctions that foreshadowed a life of poise and

accomplishment. She was also a proud member of Pi Kappa Sigma.

She met her first husband, Allen V. Young, while she was working at Washington and Lee

University and while he trained at the Virginia Military Institute. Their union brought forth a

family that would become the cornerstone of her life. Later, she shared decades of love and

adventure with her second husband, Robert Francis Stockhausen, traveling the world and

savoring life’s riches together.

A lifelong advocate for education and philanthropy, she was a dedicated member of the

First Presbyterian Church of Bradenton and an active participant in the Philanthropic

Educational Organization sisterhood, championing opportunities for women.

Ms. Stockhausen was a woman of refined tastes—favoring Chanel lipsticks in only three

shades (410, 402, and 468)—but her true beauty radiated from within. She possessed an

uncommon ability to make all who crossed her path feel seen, valued, and cared for.

Her presence in a room was an invitation to kindness and conversation. Those who knew

her best recall a woman who gave generously of her time, remained humble, and embodied

the quintessential Southern lady—graceful yet tenacious, firm in her convictions yet infinitely

warm-hearted.

She is survived by her children, Richard Young (with wife Ceal Capistrano) and Laura

Young Lawrence; her sister, Alice Bradshaw; her grandchildren, Tia A. Borso (Michael

Stickler and their children, Mary Katherine and Shepherd Allen Stickler), Sophia Young (with

partner Evan Meisler), Edward Stockhausen (with partner William Riddle) Lauren Gilmore,

and Marc Stockhausen; her stepson, William Stockhausen, and his family; as well as seven

nieces and nephews and an extended family of friends from all walks of life. Ms.

Stockhausen was preceded in death by Allen V. Young, Robert F. Stockhausen, stepson

Robert J. Stockhausen, Jr., and her son, John William “Gun-Slinger” Young,

The loss of Jane Moore Stockhausen is profound, though her memory remains indelible in

the lives she touched. She lived with an awareness that, as Thornton Wilder wrote in Our

Town, “Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?—every, every minute?”

Perhaps not. But perhaps Jane Moore Stockhausen did.