Jane Wilhelm Daniels

Textile weaver and former librarian served on multiple boards

Jane Wilhelm Daniels was an avid gardener.

Jane Wilhelm Daniels, a textile weaver, gardener and former librarian, died of congestive heart failure Jan. 2 at her Roland Park home. She was 96.

Born in Baltimore and raised in Forest Park in Poplar Hill, she was the daughter of Ann Elizabeth Dawson Wilhelm, a World War II Red Cross volunteer, and Frank Osborne Wilhelm, an investment banker.

She was a Roland Park Country School graduate, where she was a cheerleader, and earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Goucher College and a master’s degree in library science at Simmons College in Boston.

She joined the staff of the Enoch Pratt Free Library and later served at the Towson headquarters of the Baltimore County Library.

“An avid Anglophile, she arranged a job swap with a librarian from England and spent 1954 to1955 working in Croydon outside London where she made lifelong friends,” said her daughters, Jane and Ann Daniels.

She married Dr. Worth Bagley Daniels Jr. in June 1962. They met at a library-sponsored garden party.

Mrs. Daniels learned weaving and joined the Weavers Guild of Greater Baltimore. She also served on the advisory council of the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C. She made clothes, upholstery, table linens and tapestries. She also commissioned the centennial banner to hang in the Roland Park Country School library.

She served on the boards of Roland Park Country School, Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the Baltimore Shakespeare Company. She was a founding member of the Baltimore Women’s Giving Circle.

She owned and drove a succession of blue Checker Marathon autos that resembled taxi cabs.

“Jane was unique. She danced to her own terms,” said Janet Heller, a friend. “She was warm and laughed a lot. She was a Democrat and followed politics closely. If she liked a candidate, she’d put a yard sign out.”

She and her husband traveled the world. She sought out less traveled places – Turkey, China and the places along what is called the Silk Road trading route. She admired and collected brass, Chinese dragons and textiles during her trips.

She and her husband established the Jane and Worth B. Daniels Jr. Fund at the Baltimore Community Foundation.

She was a member of the Garden Workshop and kept a rose and perennial garden. She remained active in her 90s doing jigsaw puzzles and reading numerous books.

Mrs. Daniels was a donor to the Southern Poverty Law Center and fought hate groups through the organization. She was also a benefactor of the Partnership with Native Americans and the Red Cloud Indian School.

A service will be held at 1 p.m. Feb. 1 at Saint David’s Episcopal Church, 4700 Roland Ave.

Survivors include two daughters, Jane Desvarreux January Daniels, of Baltimore and Ann Osborne Daniels, of Baltimore; a sister, Mary Virginia Wilhelm “Jinx” Barton, of Baltimore; and three grandchildren. Her husband, a physician, died in 2009.

Have a news tip? Contact Jacques Kelly at [e-mail] and 410-332-6570.