It pleased God to take to himself our beloved mother Meta Lois Diffenderfer White of Chatham, Virginia and Pensacola, FL. She passed away at Lilac Hill, her home in Chatham, surrounded by her children. She was the widow of Chatham attorney W. Carlton White, whose passing was in 2004. Meta was the operator/owner of Lindenstruth-White realty in Pensacola and the author of Leta Loyce: A Memoir of Pensacola, available through Barnes and Noble. She was a gourmet cook, a couturier dress designer and seamstress, and a rosarian. At Lilac Hill, Meta and Carlton cultivated more than 100 roses. She was born in Pensacola on 20 July 1919, the daughter of William Charles Diffenderfer and Meta Lois Lindenstruth Diffenderfer of Pensacola. Her older brothers were William Charles Diffenderfer Jr. and adopted twins Clinton and Clifton Diffenderfer. Her given name was Leta Loyce, but while learning to write in second grade, she changed her name to that of her mother, and she was known as Meta Lois ever since. She was a popular 1937 graduate of Pensacola High School, where she was voted Best Dressed, a flair that would endure throughout her life. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she met William Carlton White of Chatham, Virginia. She received a bachelor of arts degree with a major in English literature. After their graduations from Carolina, they were married, on June 21, 1941, at her family home in Pensacola. Her husband served in the Navy in World War II. After the war, the couple lived in Charlottesville, where he graduated from the University of Virginia Law School. They lived briefly in Richmond before making their home in Chatham, the native town of her husband. Meta was a lifelong Presbyterian, growing up at First Presbyterian Church in Pensacola and attending Chatham Presbyterian Church, the home church of her husband's family, where her three children were baptized. On her mother's side, Meta was the granddaughter of Laura Anna Schwarz Lindenstruth and Peter Lindenstruth of Savannah, GA. Peter Lindenstruth came to Pensacola in 1889, beginning the family's nearly 125-year residency there, and founded Lindenstruth Jewelry. Meta's maternal grandmother, Laura, was the daughter of Elizabeth Endres Schwarz and John Schwarz, a mayor of Savannah and highly regarded sheriff of Chatham County, GA. Meta was the favorite of her mother's only sister, Carrie Elizabeth Lindenstruth of Pensacola, a prominent business woman. Her mother Meta and aunt were graduates of Georgia Normal & Industrial College, now Georgia College & State University. Meta's father, Will C Diffenderfer, founded Diffenderfer Jewelry in Pensacola. He was a native of Albion, Nebraska. Meta's paternal grandparents were Charles F Diffenderfer of New Columbia, PA, and Matilda Moore Gray Diffenderfer of St. Croix, Danish West Indies. Meta's Diffenderfer lineage reached back to 1629 in Bassersdorf, Switzerland, and her progenitors arrived in the colony of Pennsylvania in 1727. Two ancestors, Gottfried Diffenderfer and his son Jacob, served in the Revolutionary War. The ancestors of her grandmother, Matilda Gray, were associated with sugar plantations. Her great-grandmother, Mary Jane Woods Gray, was educated at the Moravian School in Bethlehem, PA, and her great-grandfather, Thomas Anchestille Gray, was educated at the prestigious Soro Academy in Denmark. Meta is survived by her adoring children, Theckla Elizabeth White Williams of Pensacola, Laura Mathilde White Alderson of Raleigh, NC, William Carlton White II of Charlottesville, VA, and her granddaughter, Laura Elizabeth Alderson of Raleigh. Until her death, she remained in touch with her lifelong friends, R. C. Tweed, whom she met in first grade at NB Cook Elementary in Pensacola, and James Boykin of Newnan, GA. Meta will be interred beside the father she lost when she was nine, at 3:00 pm, Monday, October 15, 2012 in St. John's Cemetery on Belmont Street in Pensacola. Arrangements by Scott Funeral Home in Chatham and Bayview Fisher-Pou of Pensacola. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to Chatham Presbyterian Church, PO Box 668, Chatham, VA 24531.