Jonna Roberta Gane Lazarus, a landscape architect and artist whose interest in horticulture included native plants, died of ALS complications on November 24 at her Tuscan home in Canterbury. She was 81.
She was born in Jamestown, New York, the daughter of graphic artist Robert Gane and medical secretary Beatrice Kestler Gane. After graduating from Rochester Institute of Technology, she studied landscape design at George Washington University and Longwood Gardens.
“From her father, she inherited her love of design and art, as well as skiing and sailing,” said her husband, Fred Lazarus, former president of the Maryland Institute College of Art. “From her mother, she developed a love of crafts, knitting and cooking. From both came their love of water, especially the oceans, and nature.”
As a recent college graduate, she turned down a job at New York's Bloomingdale's department store because she felt she wasn't ready for Manhattan. She moved to the Carson Pirie Scott stores in Chicago, where she became fashion coordinator for home furnishings. She created model rooms, decorated countless Christmas trees and developed products, often spending months abroad in European factories for the annual international trade fairs.
She met her future husband through friends. They married in 1970 and lived in Capitol Hill, Washington, before settling in Baltimore. In 1978 he was appointed MICA president.
They settled in Poplar Hill and filled a house with their collections of baskets, textiles and ceramics.
She initially worked with Crozier Associates, designing the landscaping for the Rouse Company's Owings Mills Mall. She later founded Higgins Lazarus Landscape Architecture LLC and Jonna Lazarus Design at Meadow Mill.
She created numerous private gardens and designed gardens and planting areas for the MICA campus from North Avenue to Mount Royal Station.
“Jonna understood the color and texture of plants,” said Julie Higgins, her former business partner. “She had an incredible sense of style, whether at home or at work. Her customers have been incredibly loyal to her.”
“She was a woman who defined friendship. She also had confidence in her own skin,” said a friend, architect Steve Ziger of Ziger/Snead Architects in Baltimore. “As a landscape architect, she was able to transform spaces. And as a person, she was always thinking about others.”
She hiked to Gunpowder Falls and made numerous trips to the East Coast with her dogs and binoculars in hand. She also visited western Ireland and Italy and spent summers at Lake Chautauqua.
“Jonna was a great cook who loved sharing food and entertaining. Your collection of
“Her collection of cookbooks even exceeds her gardening book collection,” her husband said. “What she loved most was having dinner with friends in our dining room or in the kitchen.”
She was a founding member and later trustee of the Parks & People Foundation, where a memorial was erected in her name.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Dec. 13 at Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church, 1316 Park Ave. instead, where she worked as a trustee and deaconess.
Survivors include her husband, Fred Lazarus; a daughter, Anna Lazarus, of Ashburn, Va.; a son, Fred “Fritz” Lazarus of Middletown, Rhode Island; a brother, Sam Gane, of Helena, Montana; and a grandson.
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