Tom Lane stood before an overflow crowd at his father’s funeral Mass. After all the prayers, songs and tributes, he ended Wednesday’s sad occasion with a canny laugh line.

Imagining his dad’s entry to heaven, he invoked words St. Peter might say at the pearly gates: “Well, Dwayne Lane, we’ll take care of you.”

It was a lighthearted and instantly recognizable play on the slogan for Dwayne Lane’s Family of Auto Centers — which is, “Remember, we’ll take care of you!”

For the hundreds gathered at Everett’s Immaculate Conception Church, and in extra seating in the Monsignor Mattie Hall gymnasium, there were laughs and tears. Family, friends, business and government leaders were there to honor an Everett native who was so much more than a car dealer.

And Tom Lane’s telling of a scene at heaven’s door was more than an amusing story. Taking care of others — family, friends and his community — was the major theme in Dwayne Lane’s life. “He had taken such good care of us,” Tom said.

Dwayne Lane, 80, died March 18. He is survived by Rosemary Lane, his wife of 57 years; five children, Monica Lane, Colleen Frauenholtz, Mary Kay Roche, Peter Lane and Thomas Lane; many grandchildren, great-grandchildren and extended family.

“Our community has lost a real hero,” said Ted Wenta, YMCA of Snohomish County’s senior vice president of operations and president of the Everett School Board.

“The Dwayne Lane family is instrumental in supporting charities throughout the community. It wasn’t just the Y, the Boys &Girls Club and the hospital, but little things you never heard of. That was really passed on to his sons and daughters,” Wenta said.

He couldn’t resist telling a comical story about Dwayne Lane’s exercise regimen. “One time we took out an abdominal machine at the Marysville YMCA. Dwayne was obsessed with strengthening his core,” Wenta said.

After the facility removed Lane’s favorite machine to replace it with something new, Wenta said, “he had me slap his stomach. And he said, ‘I want that machine back.’” Lane ended up buying the same model and putting it back at the Marysville Y.

Bill Tsoukalas, executive director of the Boys &Girls Clubs of Snohomish County, recalled that in the 1990s Lane was co-chairman, with Bert Cronin, of a fundraising campaign to rebuild the Boys &Girls Club in north Everett.

He, too, sees how community involvement was inherited by the family’s next generation. Colleen Frauenholtz, the Lanes’ daughter, is a new member of the local Boys &Girls Clubs board of directors.

His wife, Judy Tsoukalas, remembers a man who cared about people. She has a car from Dwayne Lane’s Arlington Chevrolet. Some time ago, she took it there for an oil change. While waiting, Dwayne Lane recognized her.

“He came over and sat down and started telling me stories. He shared some of his life while I waited. He was there until my car was finished,” she said, noting that the Lane family suggested donations to Boys &Girls Clubs of Snohomish County in lieu of flowers. “He was bigger than life,” she added.

Mike Gregoire, who grew up in Everett, recalls Dwayne Lane attending his wedding when he married the state’s future attorney general and governor. It was 1975, and he was just out of the military. His bride, Chris Gregoire, was in law school. The wedding reception was in Mattie Hall, next to Immaculate Conception Church.

Gregoire said Lane’s wedding gift was a credit card — Lane’s own charge card — before gift cards were popular. They used it on their honeymoon, said Gregoire, who insists they didn’t go hog wild.

Katherine Wilson’s friendship with Lane went back to school days. Her late husband, Jim Wilson, met Lane at Immaculate Conception School in third grade. She came to the school in fifth grade, and Lane’s future wife entered in sixth grade. She said Lane got his first job at Everett’s Walsh-Platt Dodge because Rosemary, then his girlfriend, babysat for Harold Walsh’s family.

Dwayne Lane was best man at the Wilsons’ wedding, and Jim Wilson was Lane’s best man. The four friends traveled to London and France and went on cruises together. Most memorable were Fourth of July celebrations with the Lanes at Mission Beach. “We all had to sing ‘God Bless America,’” Wilson said.

Art Hansen was a close friend of Lane’s at Everett High School. “I was the class of 1953, he was ‘54,” Hansen said. Together they fished in Alaska and hunted in Eastern Washington. Hansen spent his career at Everett’s Associated Sand &Gravel. While both were businessmen, they mostly talked about life.

“He loved people and believed in people. He had a tremendous commitment to his family and his grandchildren,” Hansen said. “He didn’t come from a lot of wealth. His father was a truck driver. I always thought he was the uncommon common man.”

This story was modified to correct a reference to Bert Cronin’s role in an Everett Boys &Girls Club fundraising campaign.

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com. Herald writer Jerry Cornfield contributed to this story.