Anne Thacher

Stonington - Anne Creveling Thacher died peacefully at home on Saturday, March 18, 2017, after a long illness that she was determined to defeat.

Anne was born in New York City, on April 18, 1958, to Peter Shaw Thacher and Mary (McGrath) Thacher. She attended The Chapin School in New York until 1971, when the family moved to Geneva, Switzerland. In 1976, Anne graduated from the International School in Geneva and in 1980 she received a bachelor's degree from Smith College, where she majored in international government and anthropology. Anne also spent time in the family home in Nairobi, Kenya from 1977 to 1983.

Following college, Anne moved to Stonington. She worked with Advest Inc. until 1981 and E.F. Hutton & Company, which eventually became UBS/Paine Webber Inc., until 2000. She volunteered with Literacy Volunteers teaching English as a second language from 1986 to 2000.

Anne returned to school and in 2004 earned her master's in library science (M.L.S.) from the University of Rhode Island. Also that year, she began work at the Stonington Historical Society's Woolworth Library. She worked there as a librarian until May 2016, when she retired because of ill health. Anne was a gifted researcher with a love of history. She was a good problem solver who enjoyed helping people and she was instrumental in digitally cataloguing the Historical Society's collections.

Anne loved the natural world, her birdfeeders, and her Havanese dog, Flora. She was an accomplished needlewoman, specializing in fancy knitting, crocheting, and needlepoint, as well as extraordinary quilting. She was a member of the Five Rivers Consortium, the Stonington Historical Society and the Wadawanuck Club.

Anne will be sorely missed by her friends and family. She is survived by her mother, Mary M. Thacher of Stonington; her sister, Linda (Thacher) Visscher and her husband, Pieter T. Visscher and their children, Adeline Shaw Visscher and Adrian Hand Visscher of Mystic; her brother, Peter Shaw Thacher Jr. of Washington, D.C. and Stonington; as well as by her aunt, Anne McGrath Lederer of Earlysville, Va., and her children, Sloane Lederer, wife of Lucius N. Palmer, their son, Schuyler Beekman Palmer of New York City, and Andrew Lederer, his partner, Megan Schmidt and their daughter, Phoebe Schmidt of Winthrop, Wash.; and, by her aunt, Patricia Daly Lipe of Haymarket, Va. She is also survived by her former husband, Kenneth B. "Kip" Tate Jr. of Bloomington, Ind.

She was predeceased by her father, Peter Shaw Thacher.

Anne's family are particularly grateful to neighbors, Pam and Grant Legare and Carol Goodman, as well as nurses, Andrea Lewis and Maggie Costello of Lighthouse Healthcare for their friendship and attentive care.

There will be a memorial Mass at 11 a.m. April 22, 2017, at St. Mary Church in Stonington.

Gifts in her memory may be made to the Groton Public Library, 52 Newtown Road, Groton, CT 06340 and to the Woolworth Library of the Stonington Historical Society, P.O. Box 103, Stonington, CT 06378.