Ann Gallagher

GALLAGHER, ELIZABETH ANN STOCKETT, died this past Memorial Day, May 27, 2013. She was 76 years old. She was born Ann Stockett in the town of Gambrills on September 9, 1936 and grew up in Annapolis. Although a stellar student in high school, her family saw no prospects for her to go to college. Determined to attend, she applied for and won awards, including the Senatorial and DAR scholarships, so that she could go to the University of Maryland in 1954. In her junior year at UMD, she met a soldier who had returned from Korea to attend college on the GI Bill, Robert Gallagher. They married while in school. Ann graduated in 1958 and, that summer, she and her husband bicycled over 2000 miles through Europe in the three months they spent in there. Ann earned her master's degree in Education in 1960. She taught in the D.C. area until 1963, when she attended her first civil rights march with her newborn child. Shortly after that, the couple left the U.S. to teach at military bases for three years, then settled back to Maryland in 1966. During her 42-year teaching career in Prince George's county, Ann held positions at Berwyn Heights Elementary, Benjamin Stoddard Junior High, and Carole Highlands Elementary. She also served as assistant to her area supervisor. Ann loved reading, gardening, and teaching her children and grandchildren. She raised three sons, saw the birth of six grandchildren, and taught in public schools for 42 years. After she moved to Darnestown, Ann expanded her gardening and took in stray animals, sometimes including raccoons, foxes, squirrels, and birds, who would share her food and sunny decks with the cats around her house. Ann had many friends in her water aerobics and exercise classes, whom she missed while in the hospital. She was preceded in death by her father Jack Stockett and her mother Ida Adele Tolson Stockett. She is survived by her husband, her brothers Johnny and Mark, her sister Lois, three children, and five grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, Ann's family will collect donations to her favorite charities at the wake, which is to be held at the Germantown Recreation Center, Social Hall, on June 23, 2013 from noon to 4 p.m.