Mary Ann Wauters

Mary Ann Wauters died peacefully in her sleep after a short illness in Baton Rouge, LA.

She was 104.5 years old.

Born in the Mississippi River town of Friars Point, MS., on July 17, 1919, she lived most of her life in other states. She attended Holton Arms in Washington, DC, where she met J Edgar Hoover and attended the inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She also attended King-Smith Studio School for Girls in Washington DC, whose literature teacher was Lesley Frost, daughter of Poet Laureate Robert Frost, and the dance teacher was Martha Graham. She finished her education at Ole Miss before moving to Memphis, TN. She married Hal Halford and had two children, Milly Halford and Bill Halford. She later married Jacques Wauters and had a daughter, Mellicent Singham. They moved to Alabama for the aerospace industry, which later took them to Utah and New Mexico. MaryAnn also lived in California, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Louisiana.

She is survived by her three children, eight grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. She loved life and remained interested in politics, walking, and swimming, and was a keen bridge player and a lover of the arts to the end. There was little she did not have an opinion on, and you could always guarantee that that opinion was well-informed. Older than some US states, she was an original. A veteran of the Second World War and a rugged survivor of the Greatest Generation. Of the old school, she was a woman who knew the importance of self-reliance and the value of things. She was a living, breathing expression of American history. They don't make her type any longer. She takes with her all of our pasts and joins herself to all the stars of the silver screen, whom she loved, and all of the icons of our shared history. She will be greatly missed.