The late Jane Stanton Hitchcock knew a good story when she heard one.
She also knew a good party, a good character, a good mystery – and, eventually, a very good poker hand.
A screenwriter, novelist, playwright, socialite and accomplished poker player, Jane lived a life that could almost have been the subject of one of her own books. Indeed, she drew heavily upon her own social circle to create her cast of characters. The New York Times obituary published after her death in June 2025 described her as a daughter of privilege who turned the world she knew so well into witty, often wickedly observant crime fiction.
Now, through the Hitchcock Hoagland Foundation, set up by Jane and her late husband, Jim Hoagland, Jane is helping write another chapter by making a generous gift to Barbara’s Buddies, a donation that will support our work to combat social isolation among older adults.
Jane spent years observing all kinds of people, in New York and Washington DC society and beyond. She entertained them. She based her characters on them. She played poker with them. She understood that the most interesting things in life often happen around a table, where strangers can become friends, intriguing stories get told and where, at the card table, everyone is trying to figure out what cards everyone else is holding.
Poker became a serious passion for Jane later in life. She competed in major poker events and drew on the experience for Bluff, her 2019 final novel, a noir crime thriller about a former socialite who finds that being underestimated can be a very useful advantage at the poker table. The book won the Dashiell Hammett Prize for Literary Excellence in Crime Writing.
Barbara’s Buddies believes that getting older doesn’t mean becoming less interesting. Quite the opposite! Barbara’s Buddies is built around a simple but powerful idea: older adults have plenty left to give and to learn. Jane surely understood that and was one of the most interesting, generous, loving, brilliant and fun people we have ever met. Her gift to Barbara’s Buddies is especially meaningful – it reminds us that a person’s influence can outlive them.
Jane died on June 23, 2025, at her home in Washington, D.C., aged 78. Her literary legacy remains in her novels and the worlds she created. Her philanthropic legacy lives on in the Foundation she and her husband created.
We are enormously grateful to Jane and the Hitchcock Hoagland Foundation for their generosity in helping Barbara’s Buddies carry our vision forward.
