Ann Shearer

1935 - 2014

Ann F Shearer (née Martin) 78

DURHAM, NC - Ann Frances Shearer (née Martin) died on Sunday, April 27, 2014 at home. She was 78 and had been in compromised physical health for many years due to complications from breast cancer treatment. She died seated on her couch near the books and magazines that supported her rich artistic interests and vibrant intellectual life.

Born and raised in Worcester, MA, she was a graduate of Clark University and earned a Master of Library Science at Rutgers University. Prior to earning her Bachelor of Arts, she became an RN at the Memorial School of Nursing (now UMass Memorial) and practiced as an operating room nurse in Worcester and Hollywood, CA. She studied studio art and art history at Wayne State University and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

After two years of working in the field of librarianship, she retired to raise a family and create art. She had an award-winning career producing prints and box constructions. Her work was shown widely in national and regional juried and invitational exhibitions--at institutions including the North Carolina Museum of Art, Durham Art Guild, and the South Eastern Center for Contemporary Art--and won more than a dozen honors and awards. Her work was also shown in more than 40 group exhibitions. She was active in Center/Gallery at the ArtsCenter of Carrboro as well as the Durham Art Guild and cherished her close group of friends in the arts community.

She was predeceased by her beloved husband, Kenneth Decker Shearer, a faculty member at North Carolina Central University. She is survived by her sons, Christopher of San Francisco, Timothy and his wife Heather Nottingham of Durham, and Conan and his wife Emily currently living in Prague, and her brothers Robert and his wife Mary, and Eugene of Worcester. She was the proud "Nana" of Henry Decker, Maxwell Martin, and Felix Joseph of Durham, and Forrest Decker, Maya Jane, and Ian Paul currently living in Prague.

There will be a memorial mass at the Newman Catholic Student Center Parish of Chapel Hill at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 3rd.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation or to the Chapel Hill Public Library in her memory.