Born May 23, 1945
Louisville, Kentucky
Died Feb. 15, 2025
Colchester, Vermont
Details of services
A memorial service will be held on May 26, 2025, under the care of both Plainfield Monthly Meeting and Burlington Friends Meeting. This memorial will be hybrid, providing greater access to all who would like to participate. More information will be available on La Verne (LVM) Shelton’s Caringbridge site in April.
La Verne Maria Shelton (later known by her initials LVM or Elviem) was born May 23rd, 1945, in Louisville, Kentucky, to Forest Nathaniel Shelton and Agnes Priscilla Woolridge Shelton and died on February 15th, 2025, after a protracted struggle with cancer. La Verne was one of 4 children, with a brother 18 years older, Forest Nathaniel Shelton, and a sister 13 years older, Elizabeth “Priscilla” Shelton Walker. A younger sister Myra Lynette Shelton died in adolescence. La Verne was married to Klaus Leeb, a mathematics professor, and together they traveled widely, living in Germany, England, and Canada (1968-1978). After many years in the Midwest and the Philadelphia area, La Verne returned to Central Vermont in 2013, where she had graduated from Goddard College many years before. La Verne, known in Vermont by her initials LVM or Elviem, lived in Montpelier for eleven years until her illness took to her the McClure-Miller Respite Home in Colchester.
A prominent theme in La Verne’s life was music. Her godmother gave her piano lessons when she was no older than 4 and she sang in the junior church choir. By age 12, she was co-leading a choir of younger children, hired to play the piano for monthly Sunday School assemblies, and enrolled at the University of Louisville Preparatory Department where she was immersed in Bach and music theory. In college and afterwards, LaVerne’s musical involvement continued. In 1967 she graduated from Goddard College (after a year at NYU), with a double major in math and music, performing a major recital of harpsichord pieces. At each subsequent graduate placement she picked up new instruments. At Berkeley it was the viola da gamba, at the University of Minnesota it was the recorder. She continued to play in small ensembles, and to sing in choruses throughout her life, most recently the local Vermont Onion River Chorus and the Burlington Choral Society. Music was a joy, and a source of inspiration. To play in an ensemble with her was to experience both the challenge and beauty that learning and performing music can bring.
Academically, La Verne had a full and remarkable career. She earned her PhD in philosophy and a minor in mathematics from the University of Minnesota in 1976. In recognition of this accomplishment she received the Trailblazer Award from the Collegium of Black Women Philosophers in 2009. She taught philosophy in a variety of institutions including Rutgers, Haverford, College of Charleston, and the University of Wisconsin. In addition to teaching philosophy, La Verne worked for the Educational Testing Service for Graduate Records. In 2002, La Verne got an MSSW in social work with a concentration in Mental Health from the University of Wisconsin, and subsequently worked at Yahara House, a community-based program in Madison for people living with mental illness.
Throughout her adult life, La Verne found a spiritual home in Quakerism. She was a member and/or sojourned with many Friends Meetings (Haverford, Princeton, Charleston, Madison, and Greene Street, Philadelphia) before transferring her membership to the Plainfield Friends Meeting in Vermont, and continued to serve in leadership roles within national and regional Quaker organizations with particular attention to supporting individuals’ spiritual journeys, including addressing anti-racism/white supremacy among Friends, and the meaning and practice of Faithfulness with Marcelle Martin. La Verne served as Friend in Residence at Pendle Hill, a Quaker retreat center, and reflected recently that this was one of her fondest memories, and experience of both spiritual and vocational congruence. She wrote articles and contributed poetry for the Friends Journal, a national Quaker publication.
In her Vermont retirement, La Verne continued to be active in Quaker spiritual practice, in music, in writing poetry and her memoir. Although she had to use her car often for more distant travel, all local trips were taken by bicycle. At home she treasurer her cats: Squirrel, then Rafiki, and most recently Bartleby, as well as a vast collection of musical instruments, a variety of teas and tea pots, and the computer which connected her to Quakers far and wide.
La Verne leaves her niece Jean Lynn Walker, only child of her sister Elizabeth (Priscilla) Shelton Walker (White Plains, NY), sister-in-law: Thurlean Shelton and other relations in Detroit, MI. She will be missed by her wide circles of friends and Quakers, with whom she shared much spiritual sustenance and joy throughout her life.
Read the story on VTDigger here: La Verne Maria “LVM” Shelton.