Ann Gatti Kelly Vallier

Virginia Ann Gatti Kelly Vallier died in her home on New Year's Eve 2023 in Miami, Florida, surrounded by her family. She was 89 years old. Everyone knew her as Ann; they also knew her as a warm, vivacious, determined, and intelligent woman with a sense of style, a zest for life, and a knack for storytelling.

Ann was born in Mobile, Alabama, one of six children of Rita and Ernesto Gatti. She is survived by three of her sisters-Carol, Bernadette (Bunny) and Stevi. She was the mother of five children: Laura; Andrew, married to Gayle Zalduondo; Julia, married to Russ Cole; Patrik, married to Laura Ogden; and Tim, married to Sarah Smith. Ann is also the grandmother of Carmen, Lucas, Olivia and Eva. She and her first husband and father of her children, Emmett Kelly, met at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, and married shortly thereafter. They spent their first years of marriage in Riviera Beach, then moved to Lakeland, Florida. They divorced in the mid-70s. She and her second husband, Bill Vallier, were married on Valentine's Day in 1982 and remained together until Bill's death in 2019.

With their children grown, Ann and Bill began a shared life that had them living in cities around the world because of Bill's work as a petroleum engineer: New Plymouth, New Zealand; Calgary, Canada; San Francisco; New Orleans; and Miami Beach. She and Bill moved to Miami Beach in 1999 and began a multi-year renovation project on a historic condominium building they had purchased to live in. They both took great pride in the project and its striking completion.

An avid tennis player in her younger years, Ann was also active in the League of Women Voters and supported a variety of arts and education-related charitable causes. She and Bill enjoyed cooking and fine food, train travel, road trips, and collecting art and antiques from the many places they visited and lived in.

She earned an undergraduate degree in education in 1980 from the University of South Florida and worked throughout her life in a range of jobs that are a testimony to her pluck, drive and wide-ranging entrepreneurial abilities--telephone operator, truck driver for her father's construction business, model, receptionist for her son Andrew's furniture company, substitute teacher, real estate developer, interior decorator, employment counselor, event planner, and office manager of a radio station.

Her friends and family remember Ann as pragmatic and practical, curious about the world, confident and glamorous, and open to people of all kinds. She had a spark and a presence. And she is missed. Dearly.

A life celebration gathering for Ann will be held on Saturday, April 20, at 2 p.m. at History Fort Lauderdale. Bring photos or stories if you have them.