Whitesell-Somers Family Web Project - Person Sheet
Whitesell-Somers Family Web Project - Person Sheet
NameNancy Jane ISELEY 
241,2,261, Nancy Jane Iseley
241,2,261, Nancy Jane IseleyBirthJul 6, 1944, Alamance County, North Carolina543,261, Nancy Jane Iseley
DeathJul 31, 2025, Alamance County, North Carolina261, Nancy Jane Iseley
BurialCross Roads Presbyterian Church, 3302 North NC 119, Mebane, Alamance County, North Carolina261, Nancy Jane Iseley
OccupationRoadside Produce, closed in 20202
FatherEdward Frank ISELEY (1907-1987)
MotherNancy Jane VINCENT (1909-1968)
Spouses
Unmarried
No Children
Obituary Online notes for Nancy Jane ISELEY
8/2/2025
Nancy Jane Iseley
July 6, 1944 - July 31, 2025
Nancy Jane Iseley passed away peacefully at home on July 31, 2025. She led a full life as a professional photographer followed by a rewarding second career farming on her family’s land.
Jane was the daughter of Edward Frank and Nancy Jane Iseley. Mr Iseley’s parents Jerome and Mary Ross lived in a white frame farmhouse still on the property. Jane’s maternal grandparents were Ralph Waldo and Daisy Murray Vincent of Mebane. She was close with her Uncle Jim and Aunt Cornelia Barnwell and her cousins Dorothy (Dot) Kerrison and James Alexander Jr. were raised on a farm nearby.
Jane was a graduate of Radford College and the New York Institute of Photography. After graduation she worked as a staff photographer for Colonial Williamsburg for nine years where she was the photographic author for six books. Weekends were spent on the road to Richmond to ride with the Deep Run Hunt Club in Goochland County.
By 1981 she had moved home with Rambo: the first in a succession of much loved dogs. She had decided to freelance and as she was going to be on the road for 300 days a year she wanted a central location between Palm Beach, Boston, Europe, Latin and South America. Her career flourished with projects for Sotheby’s Previews, the auction house’s real estate division, and she travelled all over the world for their projects.
When her father’s health began to fail she began learning to grow tobacco and farmed with him for 6 years. She soon had a new work stipulation in place-she would only accept shoots that required a day of travel (or less) to reach.
Thus began the next chapter and her greatest life work which was the stewardship of her family farm in Alamance County. The acreage is part of a 1780 land grant from the state of North Carolina to Samuel Parks that was purchased in 1790 by Ms. Iseley’s great-great-great grandparents Rainey and Ann Phillips.
Jane expanded the crops of wheat and oats her grandfather Jerome worked to include tomatoes, pumpkins, and strawberries. She was a pioneer of organic tobacco farming for Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company and was among the first fifteen growers in the United States to do so. She was in an alliance breeding Sim-Angus commercial cow calves that are marketed as All Natural and her herd continues today. In 2013 she was the first woman to receive the North Carolina Soil and Water Conservation Farm Family of the Year Award. From her experience placing agricultural and conservation easements on her farm came the interest in exploring the effect of easements in preserving Charleston and its surrounds, the place she’s worked decades documenting in titles including The Preservation of Charleston, Charleston Interiors,
Lowcountry Plantations Today and Historic Savannah.
She founded and is president of Legacy Publications the imprint for her 36 books of architectural photography.
http://www.legacypublications.com
For Jane work and fun were almost seamless. She loved life, her family and friends, particularly those that worked alongside her at her beloved farm.
Her internment and funeral service will be held at Cross Roads Presbyterian Church 3302 N. NC Highway 119, Mebane N.C. at 4:00 pm on Sunday August 3, 2025.
Memorials may be made to the Piedmont Land Conservancy
https://www.piedmontland.org/give/
https://richandthompson.secure.tributecenteronline.com/obituaries/Nancy-Jane-Iseley?obId=43819188 261, Nancy Jane Iseley
Nancy Jane Iseley
July 6, 1944 - July 31, 2025
Nancy Jane Iseley passed away peacefully at home on July 31, 2025. She led a full life as a professional photographer followed by a rewarding second career farming on her family’s land.
Jane was the daughter of Edward Frank and Nancy Jane Iseley. Mr Iseley’s parents Jerome and Mary Ross lived in a white frame farmhouse still on the property. Jane’s maternal grandparents were Ralph Waldo and Daisy Murray Vincent of Mebane. She was close with her Uncle Jim and Aunt Cornelia Barnwell and her cousins Dorothy (Dot) Kerrison and James Alexander Jr. were raised on a farm nearby.
Jane was a graduate of Radford College and the New York Institute of Photography. After graduation she worked as a staff photographer for Colonial Williamsburg for nine years where she was the photographic author for six books. Weekends were spent on the road to Richmond to ride with the Deep Run Hunt Club in Goochland County.
By 1981 she had moved home with Rambo: the first in a succession of much loved dogs. She had decided to freelance and as she was going to be on the road for 300 days a year she wanted a central location between Palm Beach, Boston, Europe, Latin and South America. Her career flourished with projects for Sotheby’s Previews, the auction house’s real estate division, and she travelled all over the world for their projects.
When her father’s health began to fail she began learning to grow tobacco and farmed with him for 6 years. She soon had a new work stipulation in place-she would only accept shoots that required a day of travel (or less) to reach.
Thus began the next chapter and her greatest life work which was the stewardship of her family farm in Alamance County. The acreage is part of a 1780 land grant from the state of North Carolina to Samuel Parks that was purchased in 1790 by Ms. Iseley’s great-great-great grandparents Rainey and Ann Phillips.
Jane expanded the crops of wheat and oats her grandfather Jerome worked to include tomatoes, pumpkins, and strawberries. She was a pioneer of organic tobacco farming for Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company and was among the first fifteen growers in the United States to do so. She was in an alliance breeding Sim-Angus commercial cow calves that are marketed as All Natural and her herd continues today. In 2013 she was the first woman to receive the North Carolina Soil and Water Conservation Farm Family of the Year Award. From her experience placing agricultural and conservation easements on her farm came the interest in exploring the effect of easements in preserving Charleston and its surrounds, the place she’s worked decades documenting in titles including The Preservation of Charleston, Charleston Interiors,
Lowcountry Plantations Today and Historic Savannah.
She founded and is president of Legacy Publications the imprint for her 36 books of architectural photography.
http://www.legacypublications.com
For Jane work and fun were almost seamless. She loved life, her family and friends, particularly those that worked alongside her at her beloved farm.
Her internment and funeral service will be held at Cross Roads Presbyterian Church 3302 N. NC Highway 119, Mebane N.C. at 4:00 pm on Sunday August 3, 2025.
Memorials may be made to the Piedmont Land Conservancy
https://www.piedmontland.org/give/
https://richandthompson.secure.tributecenteronline.com/obituaries/Nancy-Jane-Iseley?obId=43819188 261, Nancy Jane Iseley