Anne SPALDING

1930 - 2017

SPALDING, Anne Wakefield Gowen Anne Wakefield Gowen Spalding died August 29, 2017 at home in Atlanta, Georgia at the age of 86. She was born in 1930 in Brunswick, Georgia to Evelyn Williams Gowen and Charles Latimer Gowen. Anne spent her childhood in Brunswick and Saint Simons Island. Her love of reading was sparked at an early age as she read Robert Louis Stevenson's poems by the streetlight that shone through her bedroom window facing Albany Street in Brunswick. The Gowen family spent their summers on Saint Simons to escape the Brunswick heat until the family eventually moved there for good during World War II. Anne was an excellent student and graduated from Glynn Academy as Salutatorian of the Class of 1948. After two years at Stephens College in Columbia, MO, she enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1952. She selected Political Science as her major at Chapel Hill because it had the most flexible curriculum which allowed her to pursue her intellectual curiosity. She was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority and enjoyed cheering on her Tar Heels at basketball games and football games. She remained a loyal Tar Heel fan in spite of being a member of a family overrun with Georgia Bulldogs. Upon graduation, Anne moved to Atlanta and took a job as a reporter on The Atlanta Constitution where she had interned the summer before. She was initially assigned to the federal beat and later covered the Fulton County Courthouse and politics for The Constitution. While at The Constitution, she became good friends with many of the female writers there including Celestine Sibley, Margaret Shannon and Pat Lahatte Langley. In 1954 Anne took a leave of absence from the newspaper to work as press secretary on her father's unsuccessful bid for the governorship of the State of Georgia. A fellow, and considerably older, Constitution reporter, Jack Spalding, had been assigned to cover the "Gowen for Governor" campaign and a romance developed. After the election, Anne returned to The Constitution, but left in the spring of 1955 for a two month tour of Europe with three Atlanta girlfriends. While in Paris, Anne received a telephone call from Jack who proposed marriage to her over the telephone. She tentatively said "Yes". It took a second call from Jack to confirm that his intentions were true. After returning home to the United States and a brief engagement, the couple was married on Saint Simons Island on June 25, 1955. Within a little more than a year, Anne had borne their first of five children and Jack was promoted to Editor of The Atlanta Journal, a position he held until his retirement in 1978. Anne quickly plunged into a life of civic leadership and raising her beloved children in the woods of Sandy Springs. She was an extremely active member of The Junior League of Atlanta, even winning the coveted Volunteer of the Year Award. Anne also served as President of the Mimosa Garden Club in 1975 - 1976. It was under Anne's Mimosa presidency that the rock quarry at the Atlanta History Center was transformed into a unique wild garden extending over three acres and planted with wildflowers, shrubs, trees, bulbs, ferns and vines native to Georgia. She was a natural gardener and could name any flower, tree or weed without effort. Anne instilled her passion for words and reading into her children. She organized full family dramatic readings of Shakespeare and other plays, most notably Cyrano de Bergerac. She was a crafty game and puzzle player who usually won it all to the surprise of her grandchildren. A voracious consumer of both fiction and non-fiction books, Anne was active in her book clubs, including the Roswell Book Club, one of the oldest in the Atlanta area. She even pursued a law degree at John Marshall Law School in her late 40s, but had to withdraw from school to nurse Jack back to health after his lung cancer surgery in 1978. After Jack's death in January 2003, Anne spent much of her time at her East Beach home on Saint Simons reading and admiring the beauty of the shifting sands and tides and the sea birds that frequent Gould's Inlet. She had a keen eye and appreciation for natural beauty and fought to protect Glynn County's seashores from commercial development. She was a charter member of The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation and an active member of The Georgia Conservancy. She was a parishioner of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Atlanta. Anne was very politically aware and served as a member of the "Peanut Brigade", campaigning for Jimmy Carter in frigid Iowa during the winter of 1976. She also enjoyed political humor and never missed an episode of "The Colbert Report." Anne is survived by her sister, Mary Evelyn ("Bootie") Gowen Wood; her five children, Charles Gowen Spalding (Holly), Elizabeth Hughes Spalding, John Phinizy Spalding (Mildred), James Wakefield Spalding, and Mary Anne ("Maysie") Latimer Spalding Beeson (Phillip); and eleven grandchildren, Charles Gowen Spalding, Jr., William Randolph Spalding, Benedict Huston Spalding, May Spalding Morgan, Jack Johnson Spalding V, Holly Witherspoon Spalding, Charlsie Caroline Spalding, Bolling Wakefield Spalding, William Phinizy Spalding, Anne Wright Beeson and Thomas Bennett Beeson. The family would also like to express its deep gratitude to the dedicated individuals who lovingly cared for Anne her final months: Sandra Kelly, Veronica Mwangi, Kosnatu Kamara (Ms. K), Opeyemi Olatinwo and Sandra Daley. A private family graveside service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, September 4, 2017 at Arlington Cemetery, 201 Mount Vernon Highway, Sandy Springs, GA 30328. Family and friends are invited to a reception afterwards from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. at the Piedmont Driving Club, 1215 Piedmont Avenue, Atlanta, GA 30309. Donations may be made in Anne's memory to: The Atlanta History Center, to support the Mary Howard Gilbert Memorial Quarry Garden, 130 West Paces Ferry Road, Atlanta, GA 30305.