Annette Ford was fearless — in business, in life and on the highways.

She ran a successful ski shop in Avondale Estates, even though she herself didn’t ski.

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Annette Ford astutely opened a skiwear shop one year before the Atlanta Ski Club formed. She was notorious for having no fear – especially while driving 100 mph.

In her later years, she would take in homeless people, to her family’s great consternation.

And when she was behind the wheel of her Cadillac?

“That woman flew in a car. It was nothing for her to go 90, and she was probably more comfortable in the 100s,” said her daughter, Sandra Ford of Cumming.

“She got stopped a lot, but because she was so tiny and pretty, she rarely got a ticket,” her daughter said.

Once, when the 5-foot-5, 130-pound Mrs. Ford was working as a real estate agent in Grant Park, she stopped to check on a property. She left her car running at the curb to put out a directional sign. A man jumped in her car and drove off.

“She starts running after him, screaming, and she’s about 75 at the time,” said her daughter. “A man who was sitting on his porch got in his car and the two of them tried to chase him down. They finally found her car abandoned by the side of a road.”

Mrs. Ford, 86, died Sunday of lymphoma at the Lawrenceville home of another daughter, Cynthia Finney. The funeral is 2 p.m. Thursday at A.S. Turner & Sons funeral home in Decatur.

Mrs. Ford got her start in business doing market research door to door in the 1950s.

“She’d drop off a box of cereal or toothpaste, and come back a week later to see how they liked it,” Mrs. Finney said.

When market-research work started to dry up, Mrs. Ford got together with a neighbor in Avondale Estates to open a discount sportswear outlet in 1963. When the Atlanta Ski Club formed the next year, the partners decided to stock skiwear. After a few years, she bought her friend’s half of the business and became the sole proprietor.

Profits from ski supplies grew. By 1978, Mrs. Ford was operating a 3,000-square-foot store with a chalet storefront and nothing but skiwear, equipment and rentals for the slopes.

She also worked in Avondale Realty Co. with her husband, George Ford, who died in 1981. She was active in the Pilot Club of Decatur, a service group, and volunteered for a variety of causes, including Georgia Artists with Disabilities of Roswell.

“If she saw someone who needed help, she would help them. She would let homeless people stay in her house,” said Sandra Ford. After the family expressed concern, Mrs. Ford started putting them up in a motel, her daughter said.

Other survivors include a third daughter, Karen “Koki” Jenkins of Avondale Estates; two sisters, Norma Grice of Winnsboro, S.C., and Sylvia McCormick of Anderson, S.C.; six grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.