Anne Louise Baum

Anne (Anna) Louise (Meyers) Baum died on September 10, 2012 at Woodlawn Meadows Retirement Village in Hastings, Michigan. She was 94 year old, and until 2 months before her death had been in relatively good health.

She was born November 28, 1917, in Browntown, Wisconsin. She was the youngest of four children of David Allen Meyers and Louise Martha (Althof) Meyers. She was educated in rural schools in Stephenson and Winnebago Counties in Illinois.

Her parents died when she was still a girl, so she spent several years being raised by relatives, primarily her grandmother, Caroline (Kloke) Althof, of Epleyanna, Illinois.

She was fond of telling that she graduated from high school twice. In 1935 she graduated from the three-year high school in Davis, Illinois, and the next year she graduated from the four-year program at Durand High School. After working for a year, she started her training as a Registered Nurse at St. Anthony's Hospital in Rockford, Illinois. She graduated in 1940 and then began her nursing career in Monroe, Wisconsin.

Shortly after the start of World War II, she heard that the Army was looking for nurses, so she volunteered as an Army nurse. She was stationed in Palm Springs and Modesto, California, and Seattle, Washington, before being sent to Hawaii with the 204 ^th General Hospital. After several months, the hospital staff was sent to Guam, where she cared for servicemen who were wounded in the fighting in the South Pacific.

While stationed in Hawaii, she met her future husband, Robert Stuart Baum, who was in the U.S. Army Air Corps. They were married in his home city of St. Louis, Missouri, on July 12, 1946. He died in 2001.

Anne and Bob lived in St. Louis until 1966, when he was transferred to Richmond, Virginia. Anne had continued her nursing career in St. Louis, and she continued to work in Richmond as Nursing Service Coordinator at Stratford Hall Nursing Home. In 1997 Anne and Bob moved to Hastings, Michigan, to be near their daughter, Kathy Wiggins and her husband, Don.

Anne loved to travel, and she and Bob had many wonderful automobile trips in the U.S. as well as several cruises, a return to Hawaii, and a trip to Europe. They celebrated their 50 ^th wedding anniversary with a riverboat cruise to St. Louis. In their later years, they would go every summer to Marco Island, Florida. Anne loved the sun and sand, the water and the fresh seafood. She kept a large vegetable garden for many years, and spent many long hours canning, pickling and freezing their homegrown produce, often after having finished a full day's work.

She was a life-long animal lover, and was able to care for her two cats, Joey and Suzie, until January of this year.

Last September, she moved to Woodlawn Meadows, where she died on Monday morning.

She is survived by her two daughters, Karen (Peter) Metcalf, of Bettendorf, Iowa, and Kathy (Donald) Wiggins, of Nashville, Michigan; her two grandchildren, Jennifer (Richard) Wiseman, of Croydon, Surrey, England, and Robert Metcalf of Davenport, Iowa, as well as several nephews and nieces and their families. She was preceded in death by her parents and her siblings: Arnold Meyers of Durand, Illinois; Arthur Meyers of Portland, Oregon; and Ruth (Meyers) Meissen, of Durand. In her last years she developed special friendships with Clara Kodan and Mary Fisher, both of Hastings . She was deeply loved and will be sorely missed.

A service of remembrance will be held at a later date at St. Paul Church in Epleyanna, Stephenson County, Illinois.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Barry County Humane Society, P.O. Box 386, Hastings, MI 49058