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Lawton, 63, of Chevy Chase, died suddenly after speaking Thursday morning in Washington.

Many at the memorial knew Lawton through her political work — from Town of Chevy Chase council chairman to her most recent job representing District 18 in the Maryland House of Delegates. But the anecdotes delivered by family and friends portrayed a woman whose spunky personality carried seamlessly from her home life into her public service career.

‘‘You could not say no to Jane,” said U.S. Rep. Christopher Van Hollen Jr. (D-Dist. 8) of Kensington, during his tribute.

One of Lawton’s two daughters, Kathleen England Lawton-Trask, told a story about Lawton’s powers of persuasion.

Lawton-Trask talked about being 20 years old, afraid to travel alone for an extended stay in England.

Lawton tried to talk her daughter into leaving, but after two days, the 20-year-old was still scared. So Lawton said matter-of-factly, ‘‘I can see you’re on the fence.”

‘‘I would hate to see you decide you want to go, and not be able to go because you’re not at the airport,” Lawton said. She coaxed Lawton-Trask onto a plane to England by the end of the day.

Then, last weekend after her mother died, Lawton-Trask woke in the middle of the night.

‘‘And suddenly, all of this was real,” she said. The thought of talking at the memorial service was daunting.

‘‘And I swear I heard her say, ‘Why don’t you just walk up to the podium? ... Because I would hate for you to want to say something, and not be able to,’” she said.

Lawton’s husband followed his two daughters, talking about the couple’s decades of marriage. Stephan Lawton and Jane Lawton were legally separated but never divorced ‘‘simply because we didn’t want to,” he said.

‘‘She never stopped sustaining me,” he said. ‘‘I will always love her.”

In the days following Lawton’s sudden death, memorials poured in from shocked friends and colleagues — even those who disagreed with her on policy matters.

Just a few weeks ago, during the tense special session in Annapolis, Lawton stopped by to see her friend Karen McManus, who became close with Lawton several years ago while working for Van Hollen.

McManus’s parents were visiting from Louisiana.

‘‘One day, she brought a big bouquet of flowers. The next day, she brought hot pumpkin chocolate chip bread she had just baked,” McManus said. ‘‘In spite of her busy, busy schedule.”

McManus and other friends remembered Lawton’s joie de vivre, how she climbed 14,000-foot mountains in Colorado and traveled to Paris with her husband.

Polly Nichols, who befriended Lawton during college in Oklahoma, remembered ‘‘the look she would give you when she thought you were totally off base,” she said during the memorial service, ‘‘followed by that, ‘Whatever.’”

Lawton’s friend Pat Baptiste remembered Lawton’s lively sense of humor and how she would drop everything she was doing to help a friend in need.

Baptiste also remembered Lawton’s quieter side.

‘‘She’d wake up early and write poetry,” Baptiste said. ‘‘I’d known her for a long time before I knew she did that.”

Lawton’s colleague and friend of 25 years, Mier Wolf, met Lawton at a PTA meeting while ‘‘sitting in those little desks” at Rosemary Hills Elementary School. Lawton encouraged him to run for Town of Chevy Chase Council — where Wolf later became the first mayor.

Del. Maggie L. McIntosh (D-Dist. 43) of Baltimore, who chairs the House Environmental Matters Committee, on which Lawton served, praised Lawton as a ‘‘quick learner” who ‘‘never dropped the ball on anything.”

Lawton helped McIntosh work on technical aspects of the Chesapeake Bay 2010 Trust Fund bill.

‘‘We all loved her sense of humor. We all loved being called ‘Darling.’ Who wouldn’t?” McIntosh said. ‘‘I’m a better person for having known her.”

Staff writer Sean Sedam contributed to this report.