Obituaries

January 05, 2006

(Page 3 of 3)

She attended and graduated from Tower Hill School in Wilmington, Del. She attended Penn Hall Junior College in Chambersburg, Pa., and the University of Maryland at College Park, where she was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority and remained a member of Mid-Maryland Kappa Kappa Gamma Alumnae Society.

Jane was married to Winslow F. Burhans on Feb. 11, 1933. Mr. Burhans was a former two-term County Commissioner and three-term mayor of Hagerstown.

She was secretary and co-owner, with her husband, of Better Homes Inc. of Hagerstown.

Always active in community affairs and politics, Jane was a past president of the Hagerstown Women's Democratic Club and the first woman to serve on the Democratic State Central Committee of Washington County; founder and first president of the Washington County Council of Democratic Women's Clubs; and past treasurer and Western Maryland chairman of the United Democratic Women's Clubs of Maryland. Jane led a petition drive to get jury service for women in Washington County, which was accepted by Gov. McKeldin in 1951.

She designed and made the first City of Hagerstown flag, which now is framed and hung in the Council Chamber at Hagerstown City Hall. In 1991, Jane donated a memorial room at City Hall in honor and memory of her late husband which is used as a conference room, library and museum. For 12 years, she was co-chairman, with her husband, of the Hagerstown-Wesel, Germany Sister-City Affiliation and remained an active member for more than 50 years.

Jane was a past president of the Zonta Club of Hagerstown and was named the Zonta Woman of the Year in 1984. She was a member of the Conococheague Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Gov. Norborne Berkeley Chapter of the National Society Daughters of American Colonists, the Washington County Historical Society and the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts.

The Washington County Board of Commissioners issued a proclamation designating April 16 as Jane M. Burhans Day for her 50 years of public service on both a local and global level.

Jane was preceded in death by a son, George Martin Burhans, in 1953; and her husband, Winslow Forthman Burhans, in 1990.

She is survived by a daughter, Sally Buschmann and husband, Karl, of Potomac, Md.; a son, Winslow F. Burhans Jr. and wife, Dotti, of New Market, Md.; a grandson, Winslow F. Burhans III, current mayor of New Market; four other grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

The family will receive friends Friday, Jan. 6, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Andrew K. Coffman Funeral Home, 40 E. Antietam St., Hagerstown.

The funeral service will be Saturday, Jan. 7, at 10 a.m. at Zion Evangelical and Reformed Church, 201 N. Potomac St., Hagerstown. The Rev. Robert C. Royal will officiate. The family will receive friends at the church beginning at 9 a.m.

Interment will be in Rose Hill Cemetery, Hagerstown.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Zion Evangelical and Reformed Church, 201 N. Potomac St., Hagerstown, MD 21740.

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