Obituary of Ann Hunter

Ann Hunter joined her ancestors Thursday January 22nd, after complications from heart failure. Visitation will be held on Wednesday, January 28, from 3 to 5pm at Gay and Ciha Funeral and Cremation Service, where a funeral service will begin at 5pm. Private family burial at Chippiannock Cemetery, Rock Island will take place at a later date. Memorial contributions may be made to the American Heart Association; Augustana College, Rock Island; St. Andrew Presbyterian Church; or Iowa City Hospice. Online remembrances and condolences may be expressed to the family by visiting www.gayandciha.com. Shirley Ann (Baker) Hunter was born July 26, 1930, on reportedly the hottest day of the year, in Moline, IL, to Margaret Lorraine (Simmon) Baker and John Kenneth Baker. The only child of two only children, Ann lived through the great depression and has memories of coming home from church , and hearing the announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor when she was in 6th grade. She grew up with ration books, recycling drives and a strong foundation of family, community and patriotism. Although the family moved frequently, starting in Taylor Ridge, but eventually landing in various places around Rock Island, they always lived near or with her grandparents and other extended family, giving the small family a large community of support. When it came time for Ann to start school, the family moved into town where she attended the Villa de Chantal Catholic School (for kindergarten), Irving Grade School and Franklin Junior High. The family moved around the city, but her grandparents provided the constant in their lives, living on 14 1/2 street throughout the time, providing child care for Ann, taking her to Central Presbyterian Church a block from their house and involving her in their many Masonic activities. She remembered with great fondness playing ally ball (softball) with her friends in the ally behind her grandparents house, manually setting the pins (usually to her teams advantage) at the bowling ally and taking day long bike and hike journeys to Andalusia. As Ann was preparing to attend Rock Island High School, VE day and VJ day brought celebrations and parades to the area, and that brought the school bands together. When some of the high school boys came to Franklin to teach the junior high kids how to march in preparation for the parades, Ann saw John Hunter for the first time. Although at one of the parades the streets were so hot, Ann got second degree burns through the soles of her shoes on the bottom of her feet, it was this time that was always remembered as the beginning of her lifelong love for John. That fall, Ann started at Rock Island High School, and her first 'official' introduction to John took place at her locker between classes, where he asked her to the Homecoming Dance. Although they had met through mutual family friends, Ann's parents didn't know much about this ... boy. It took the support of her grandfather and her great uncle, who had both been mail carriers for the Hunter family over the years and knew of the family, and the support of the Greve family before John was deemed 'acceptable to date.' John and Ann both went from High School to Augustana College in Rock Island where Ann pledged Sigma Pi Delta Sorority. In 1950, Ann entered Lutheran Hospital School for Nurses, and on October 11, the anniversary of their first date, John proposed. Ann continued her Nursing training, traveling around the United States to Cook County Hospital in Chicago; MacMurray College in Jacksonville; Illinois State Mental Hospital and back to Rock island, graduating in 1953 from Lutheran Hospital School and receiving her BS in Nursing from Augustana. Ann and John were married December 19, 1953 in Rock Island, after which John was drafted in the Army. As John traveled with the Army, Ann found out she was pregnant. She lived with her family and worked at Lutheran Hospital School as Clinical Instructor of Maternity until her first pregnancy resulted in a still birth. It appeared to the couple that John would be stationary for a while so she decided to join him as he finished out his service in the army. The couple settled in Laurel, MD near where he was stationed and Ann was hired to work in Radiology at Johns Hopkins. As is the way of the world, 3 months later, the Army decided they needed John in Germany, so Ann returned to Rock Island as an instructor of Nursing Arts at Lutheran Hospital School until John returned. The couple moved to Iowa City where Ann became a Clinical Instructor of Maternity Nursing at the University of Iowa College of Nursing while John worked on his Master's degree, living in Grandview Court Apartments, where they met many of their long time Iowa City friends. Before Ann was 40, with her family she had moved almost 30 times during her life. That would end in 1964, when the couple moved to the house they would live in for the next 50 years, in the woods at the end of Washington Street. At the same time, Ann moved from the University to the Mercy Hospital School as Instructor for Maternity Nursing and in 1965 she entered the inaugural class of Master's Program in Nursing at the University, earning her MS a year later. In 1970, Sabrina, their only daughter was born, and with her birth, Ann's passion for genealogy was rekindled. With her parents, avid genealogists themselves, many trips through grave yards, historical societies and musty book collections were taken. In 1976, as a bicentennial of the United States project, Ann was finally able to prove her heritage back to the American Revolution and was accepted into the Daughters of the American Revolution. She quickly signed up her mother and her grandmother, and Sabrina became a member of the Children of the American Revolution. When Sabrina entered grade school, Ann decided to take up the challenge of being a stay at home mom, which became one of the few challenges of continued... 1 2 3 Next