Anne Wilson

Anne C. Wilson

Anne C. Wilson died July 24th, age 68, in San Francisco, of complications from multiple autoimmune disorders. She grew up in Boston, where a family friend taught her to knit, sparking a lifelong interest in textiles. She attended The Winsor School and Radcliffe College and became active in the antiwar and women's movements, subsequently volunteering for the jury selection team for the Attica prison trials in Buffalo. She also was involved with the Haymarket People's Fund in Boston.
Anne completed her B.S. in Nursing at Boston University and moved to San Francisco, where she worked with AIDS patients and in home health nursing. She explored the West through many hiking, camping, and birding trips with her longtime friend, Jean Jackson. Above all, she loved the Southwest.
Anne volunteered in the Textiles Collections of the Hearst Museum at U.C. Berkeley and was active in the Textile Arts Council of the De Young and Fine Arts Museums. She studied weaving and continued to deepen her knowledge of textile history and craft through travels to visit and study with weavers in Guatemala and with masters of Miao embroidery in China's Guizhou Province. The spring before she died, she donated a carefully prepared collection of Guatemalan textiles to the Hearst Museum. Her life with textiles was dedicated to honoring and improving the lives of those who made them.
Late in her life, having long felt a connection to New Mexico, Anne spent a year in Santa Fe, studying colcha embroidery at the Museum of Spanish Colonial Arts and immersing herself in local traditions and culture.
Anne was noted for the many deep friendships she maintained over the years and the intensity she brought to every encounter. A lifelong animal lover, she nurtured and cherished a long line of dogs and cats, and two rabbits. She sought out elderly or failing dogs to adopt, wishing to give them a happy life for whatever time they had remaining.
Anne was preceded in death by her parents, John J. Wilson and Dorothy A. Wilson of Marblehead, MA. Survivors include Jean Jackson of Oakland, CA, Richard Wilson of Marblehead, MA, Sarah Wilson of San Francisco, Eleanor Williams of Sarasota, FL, and family and friends on both coasts.
Donations may be made to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, the SFSPCA, and the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology.