Gary, Anne
GARY, Anne Marie
April 4, 1923 -
November 27, 2022
Anne Marie Gary was a member of the Greatest Generation. She was ninety-nine years old when she passed away on November 27, 2022. Her long life was rich with experiences of our Country as it changed over the last century.
She was the daughter of a college professor (William Louis Roney) and a beautiful young mother who filled their home with her love of music (Anne Marie Pattillo). Her brother became a famous opera singer, living much of his life in Europe (William Louis Roney, Jr.). As a child, she was given the nickname "Peg" after the Zeigfield Follies song, "Peg O' My Heart".
Peg adored her widowed grandmother, Ruth Pattillo, who ran a boarding house for "ladies and gentlemen" at the big house that still stands as Number One Peachtree Circle. The highly respected cook, Lula, was born enslaved during the Civil War and taught Peg to cook "southern style". Peg recalled her grandmother and Lula feeding the hungry from the kitchen door during the Depression. As a child, Peg was close to her Southern heritage, spending summers with relatives in Waynesboro and Sundays on porches with aunts and uncles in Decatur. These were the Pattillos, the Holleymans, the Crumbleys and, throughout her life, her family grounded her ... these were her "people".
Peg and her brother grew up on college campuses where their father taught languages and was the fencing coach. At Rollins College, she met Admiral Byrd who came to speak about his expedition to the North Pole. Her memorabilia included Byrd's autograph as well as a flower given to her by Eleanor Roosevelt. Her father took college students on summer tours of the country during the 1930's, The Florida Summer Caravan. As a tag along on these trips, she saw the American West when there were still encampments of Indians in teepees, towns like San Antonio that were merely a cluster of wooden buildings and rutted mud streets, she rode mustang ponies and camped on the ground. She went to the Worlds Fair in New York where she saw the first iteration of television.
She was able to attend Hollins College in Virginia for two years. Here she met her best friend for life, Jeanette Sibley from Atlanta. When World War II turned the world upside down, her father joined the Navy and the family moved to New Orleans where he was stationed as an instructor. Peg also joined the war effort working at Higgins Aircraft in the blue print department. When her father was transferred to New Haven, Connecticut, Peg had the opportunity to study art at Yale for a semester. For the rest of her life, she would paint and draw with increasing skill.
As the war ended, Peg married a war hero (Richard Lee Simms, Jr.) and, like so many women of her generation, raised a pack of children: Valle Ashley (Stan), Debbie Hardman (Jack), Dick Simms (Sharon) and Amie Carter (Frank). Living in Ansley Park, Peg spent many hours playing tennis at the Piedmont Driving Club. She was a force to be reckoned with due to her bullet like cross-court forehand and well-angled serve. She was highly competitive and would not cede a match even as darkness fell.
Peg renewed her friendship with Jeanette Sibley, now married to Lawson Yow. She also treasured her friendship with Jeanette's father, John Sibley, known as "Papa". Peg and Jeanette spent many hours horseback riding and playing tennis on the clay court at Papa's farm on a dirt road in Marietta. The Sibley family took her in and that was always a joy to her.
In her later years, she married again (Martin Wistar Gary) and spent time in Highlands, N.C. where she was involved with the annual Chamber Music Festival. She also maintained a home in Atlanta, where she was an avid supporter of Atlanta Opera and continued to play the rough and tumble tennis with her friends.
Highly intelligent and gifted with boundless energy and creativity, Peg wrote songs and music. A favorite country song "Here Today and Gone Tomorrow Woman" has the lyric "if you can't light my fire, don't strike my match". Peg was an excellent painter, especially portraits of dogs, grandchildren and horses and oil paintings on beautiful cupboards for her children with Aesop's Fables, scenes from American history and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Peg was a prolific poet and was writing a novel, "Delphi", until she became too ill to finish it.
Peg lived her life with courage, resilience and, always, optimism. Her sense of humor was keen and silly. She loved her own jokes the best. It was a gift to have known her bright spirit.
Her 10 grandchildren are: Brook Dutcher, Pat Dutcher, Devon Burnore (Nathan), Frank Carter (Louisa), Anne Marie Carter, Daniel Carter (Shea), Virginia Baaklini (Nader), Richard Simms (Liz), and Jennifer and Clay Zona. Her eleven great grandchildren are: Annabelle and Lee Burnore, Mila Dutcher, Harriet and George Baaklini and Eleanor and Rory Simms, Quinn and Izanna Carter, Finnley Carter and Carter Zona.
The family plans a Celebration of Life next year on her favorite holiday, April 1.
