ANNE WASHBURN

WASHBURN--Anne Clark.

Anne Clark Washburn was 98 years old when she died Sunday, January 28, 2018 in Palm Beach, Florida. She was born on December 11, 1919 at the corner of Willow and Pineapple Streets in Brooklyn Heights where she grew up in the bright city lights of New York's Roaring Twenties. Anne developed her natural instinct for drama and a flair for dressing up in school plays at Brooklyn Heights Seminary and Packer Collegiate Institute. Her early enthusiasm for theatre led her to study acting at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida and McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Graduate work at the Yale Drama School put Anne behind the scenes in costume design where she thrived. Seeing many of New Haven's landmark previews of 40's Broadway musicals lured her into the theatre. While at Yale she performed and assisted in New England summer stock venues from Ivoryton, Connecticut to the shores of Lake Sunapee, New Hampshire, until eventually finding work in the theatre in Manhattan. In 1947 fate would cast Anne as the leading lady in marriage to George Washburn. His WWII command of the Naval Destroyer Escort USS Vammen prepared him well for his leading role as partner to Anne for their 58 year run together. Anne had an enduring zest for life and an individual style all her own, but it was Anne and George's professional style ballroom dancing for which they would be best remembered. Their charmed life and many travels with two daughters was a lasting production. New York was Anne's stage, with summer appearances in East Hampton, and winter galas in Palm Beach where she was always a star at every party. For over fifty years Anne and George lived for part of every year in their house off Main Street in East Hampton, where they often entertained and staged cast parties for Philip Barry's theatre productions and the '50s and '60s Village Vanities of Guild Hall. Anne was a longtime member of the Maidstone Club and Devon Yacht Club, as well as both the Garden Club and the Ladies Village Improvement Society. She was also a member of the Four Arts and The Bath & Tennis Club in Palm Beach. Anne is survived by her sister, Tupper Limbert of Glens Falls, New York; daughters Constance Washburn Castle of Lagunitas, California; Lynn (and Robert) Hanke of New York; and five grandchildren, Andrew and William Castle and Leigh, Randall and David Hanke. A memorial service will be held for Anne next summer at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in East Hampton, where she was a member for over seventy years.