Anne Marie McMains

Anne Marie McMains

Madison - Anne McMains, 84: Loved Madison, Words, the Arts and the Mets

Anne McMains, a longtime resident of Madison who embraced the borough as her adoptive hometown, died Jan. 29 of congestive heart failure at Morristown Medical Center. She was 84.

Anne moved to Madison in 2005, after selling her home of 37 years in Morris Plains, and befriended shopkeepers there and in Chatham Township.

Anne was innately curious and a wordsmith. Her love of words and ideas sparked a lifelong passion for Shakespeare, The New Yorker and crossword puzzles in The New York Times.

Anne loved the arts, as she fondly recalled attending Broadway musicals with her mother as a teenager, and concerts with her son as an adult, including Bob Dylan with Paul Simon. Equally exciting was seeing her daughter act in plays at the Morristown-Beard School and her son play percussion in concerts at Whippany Park High School.

Anne also loved baseball and was a longtime fan of the New York Mets and vocal supporter of her son's teams in the Hanover Township Little League, including Guy's Pizza and Foodtown.

Anne was born July 26, 1936 in Los Angeles, to Herbert Louis Walthart and Mary Helen Van Vleet, and lived in Alhambra, Calif. before moving to Maplewood, N.J. in 1948.

Anne graduated from Columbia High School in Maplewood in 1954 and earned a bachelor's in history at Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio, in 1958. She later lived in New York City, where she met her future husband, illustrator Denny McMains. They wed May 14, 1960 at the Church of the Transfiguration.

Anne and Denny settled in Morris Plains in 1968, when Denny joined the art department of Silver Burdett in Morristown.

Anne is predeceased by her husband, who died of post-polio syndrome in 1989, and survived by her daughter, Kate McMains, of Sherman Oaks, Calif.; her son, Andrew McMains, and his wife, Beth Henriques, of Madison; a brother, Richard Walthart, of Ontario, Calif.; a sister, Judy Ross, and her husband, Carl, of Gold Canyon, Ariz.; a grandson, Theodore McMains, of Madison; and eight nephews and nieces, including Pam Denny of Clifton, N.J.

Arrangements by Bradley-Braviak Funeral Home, Whippany. For additional information, a full obituary and to leave the family a message of condolence, go to www.bradleyfuneralhomes.com