Annette Capps

LAKELAND -- Mrs. Annette Smith Capps, a retired school teacher for Southwest Elementary School, died of heart failure Thursday (Feb. 3, 2005) at Lakeland Regional Medical Center. She was 75."It amazed me on the street and at Publix and different places that we shopped, the people would come up to her and say, "Mrs. Capps, you taught me in first grade," her husband of 52 years, James D. Capps Sr. said.Born in St. George, Ga., on April 22, 1929, while attending school, she had a teacher with the same name as hers and decided to pursue a career as an educator. She attended Wesleyan College in Macon, Ga., and graduated with a bachelor's degree in elementary education from Stetson University, where she met her husband. Shortly after the couple married in Jacksonville, they came to Lakeland in 1953.Mrs. Capps began her career with the Polk County School Board teaching at Lime Street Elementary for a short time before she went to Southwest Elementary to be closer to the home that she and her husband have lived in for the last 50 years. Her career spanned 30 years, teaching primarily first-graders until her retirement in the mid 1990s. For a number of years, she taught first-grade Sunday school class at First Baptist Church when it was on North Florida Avenue.As a member of the Garden Club, she enjoyed growing flowers and plants in her yard. "We have some beautiful crotons. Every year in the fall, we would go out and cut crotons and she would have her room full of crotons," James D. Capps said.She was a member of the state and national PTA. She was a member of First Baptist Church at the Mall.In addition to her husband, James D. Capps, she is survived by her sons, James D. Capps Jr. and Chris D. Capps, both of Lakeland; brother, Leroy Smith, Quitman, Ga.; six grandchildren.Visitation will be from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday at Gentry-Morrison Southside Chapel, 1727 Bartow Road. Services will be at 2 p.m. Monday at the funeral home chapel. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to First Baptist Church at the Mall building fund, 1010 E. Memorial Blvd., Lakeland, 33801.