Ann F. Dunn

1929 - 2014

Ann Dunn

Ann Fletcher Dunn, 85, of Swansea, Ill., born June 8, 1929, in Paducah, Ky., died Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2014, at home, surrounded by loved ones.

Ann was the youngest child of the Rev. Custis and Margaret Fletcher. She started playing piano at age 4. She studied music at Hollins College, Roanoke, Va.; her music studies would continue over many years, wherever she lived. She married Charles Malcolm Dunn Jr., a World War II Navy veteran and an Air Force meteorologist, in 1950.

The Dunns and their four children lived an Air Force life for more than 20 years, living in England, France and across the United States. The Air Force brought them to Scott Air Force Base in 1971, and they settled here permanently.

Ann, whose father was an Episcopal priest, was an accomplished church musician who served as choir director or music director wherever they lived. She also established officers' wives choruses on the bases where they were stationed and led or took part in numerous other music activities. he became music director at St. George's Episcopal Church, Belleville, Ill., in 1972, and served in that role for 17 years, directing the senior choir, the Choristers children's choir and the Folksingers. One former St. George's priest said of her: "Ann came closer to the ideal of church musician than anyone else I ever worked with, just the right combination of musicianship, spirituality and agape." She was a member of the American Guild of Organists, the Association of Anglican Musicians and the Hymn Society.

She was a gifted composer, who, when the Episcopal Church recast its traditional Eucharistic liturgy in more contemporary language, wrote a setting for the service music in the contemporary idiom and titled it "St. George's Mass," for the parish that had come to be her home. She also composed settings for anthem texts.

Ann was a deeply faithful person who, by example, mentored countless others in their Christian lives. She possessed an abiding contentment and joy, along with a wry and sometimes irreverent humor. She read widely, and took pleasure in watching birds and sitting by a roaring hearth fire.

She was preceded in death by her husband.

Surviving are their four children, Charles Malcolm Dunn III of Belleville, Ill., Custis Fletcher (Sarah) Dunn of Swansea, Ill., Marc Presnell (Patricia) Dunn of Colleyville, Texas, and Margaret Hunter Dunn of Swansea, Ill.; five grandchildren, Benjamin Dunn, Lea Dunn, Andrew Dunn, Emily Dunn and Matthew Dunn; four step-grandchildren, Raphael Coffey, Alice Coffey, Jacob Coffey and Catherine Coffey; and one step-great-grandchild.

Memorials may be made to the Ann & Malcolm Dunn Music Fund at St. George's Episcopal Church. Condolences may be expressed to the family online at www.rennerfh.com.

Visitation: Friends may call from 10 to 11 a.m. Friday, Dec. 12, 2014, at St. George's Episcopal Church, 105 East D St., Belleville, Ill.

Funeral: A requiem Eucharist will celebrate Ann's life beginning at 11 a.m. Friday, Dec. 12, at St. George's Episcopal Church, Belleville, Ill., with the Very Rev. Dale D. Coleman, rector, officiating. Burial will be in Smithland Cemetery, Smithland, Ky., at a later date.

GEORGE RENNER & SONS FUNERAL HOME, Belleville, Ill.