In 1943, Lane enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army Air Corps, having listed his job status as unemployed during the draft registration process.

He was active in the local Democratic Party and the Jaycees, which gave Lane a distinguished service award in 1952.

[9] Redistricting occurred several times—both due to U.S. federal census results, and as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court's adoption of one-man, one-vote requirements equalizing district size (which had varied greatly in Virginia before Reynolds v. Sims and Davis v. Mann), and eventually Virginia adopted single-member districts.

Initially, Lane won election as one of seven members (all Democrats) representing Richmond in Virginia's House of Delegates.

Thus, Junie L. Bradshaw, and Republicans Louis S. Herrink Jr. and S. Strother Smith Jr. joined the delegation as Satterfield and Parker left.

In the 1970 legislative session, Carl E. Bain and B. Earl Dunn`replaced Bryan and Pendleton in Richmond's delegation.

After the reapportionment preceding the 1971 election, Richmond City only had five delegates: Lane, Allen, Bain, Sheppard and Philip B. Morris won the seats, although William Ferguson Reid was elected from a district encompassing Henrico County and Richmond City, and T. Dix Sutton, Robert B.

The 1976 delegation included new members Franklin P. Hall and Richard S. Reynolds, as Emroch and Morris either left or failed to make the cut.

Lane suffered from Parkinson's disease in his final years and died in 2009, survived by his widow, sons and grandchildren.