Ann Rita Allen Inks

Ann Rita Allen Inks, devoted and loving wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, and friend passed away on September 19, 2025. Ann was born to Fred and Nita (Peddicord) Allen on March 7, 1937, in their home above the family-owned D&H Restaurant in Williamstown, KY, where she spent her early childhood together with her parents, brother Fred Jr., and sisters Margie and Sue. The family moved to Lexington, KY, for several years and then on to Elizabethtown, KY, where she graduated from John Hardin High School (JHHS) in 1955 and where she was JHHS Homecoming Queen her senior year.

After graduation she worked for the U.S. Army’s Human Research Unit at Fort Knox, KY, where she met her husband Wayne, an Army researcher there and who she married in 1959. While in Elizabethtown, she and Wayne started their family with the birth of their first son, Larry, in 1960 before moving to Dayton, OH, with the Army where they had their second son, Jeff, in 1962. They moved to Indianapolis, IN, in 1962 after Wayne completed his Army service and was hired by Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis. They had their third son Scott there in 1964.

Throughout the years of her deep dedication to raising her children and managing the family household, with moves to Omaha, NE, and New Canaan, CT, before returning to Carmel, IN, in 1975, she was active in many social and community leagues and organizations, was an avid golfer and bowler both of which she loved, and a very talented artist among other creative endeavors. She was also manager of Kits & Kaboodle Toy Store in Carmel, IN, for a number of years as an empty nester, a job she enjoyed immensely because of her fun spirit and love of children. She and Wayne then moved to Tryon, NC, in 1996 after his retirement from Lilly.

In Tryon, her home until her passing and where she truly loved living, she remained active in the local community including among others, working with the Foothills Humane Society and serving as a member for many years and as President of the Tryon Garden Club which manages and maintains Pearson’s Falls and Glen, a North Carolina National Heritage Site of the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area. She was inducted into the Second Wind Hall of Fame in 2010 and continued her love of golfing, outdoor activities, and creating beautiful works of art in her studio as a painter and as a potter. Together with Wayne, she was also a devoted caregiver to many friends over the years. While in Tryon they maintained a second home in Indianapolis to be with extended family and friends, all of whom were very dear to them.

She will be remembered for her great generosity, humor, just being fun, quick wit, strong will, her deep love of nature, animals and people, the many beautiful works of art she created and her and Wayne’s great love and care for the many, many rescue dogs they adopted throughout the years.

Like her husband, she found strength, comfort, and joy in her family and friends and especially in her husband Wayne who she deeply loved and who affectionately described his wife Ann as “bright, sensitive and a loving person who makes the world a better place for all who know her.”

She is survived by children Larry (Martha Sanders), Jeff (Matt Modica), Scott (Kim), grandchildren Kevin, Ethan and Natalie, sisters Margie (Allen) Spires and Sue (Allen) Black, brother in-law Edward Black, sisters in-law Rose (Dodd) Allen and Linda (Boosinger) Inks, and many nieces and nephews. She is preceded in death by her husband Wayne in April of this year, her brother Fred Allen Jr., brothers in-law Duane Inks and Harry Spires, sister in-law Donna Gaille (Inks) Avakian, mother and father in-law Mark and Myra (Langendorf) Inks and her parents.

A visitation and memorial service for Ann will be held Saturday, November 8th, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., at Washington Park East Cemetery in Indianapolis. A joint inurnment service for her and her husband Wayne will follow Ann’s service. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital or Foothills Humane Society in Columbus, NC.