Ann A. Flowers

August 7, 1928 - October 20, 2021

Ann Ackerman Flowers died on Wednesday, October 20, 2021, in Hanover, NH.

She was born in Puerto Castilla, Honduras, on August 7, 1928, the only child of James and Mary Ackerman. She lived there only briefly and was brought up in New York City.  During World War II, her father was in the Navy, with the result that she changed high school nine times.

After the war she attended Barnard College and married Woodford L. Flowers, a Naval officer, in 1947.  They had three children, Peter, Katy, and Christopher.  While in the Navy they lived many places, some delightful (e.g., London, England) and some less so.  When her husband retired from the Navy and went to work for Harvard University, they moved to Wayland, Massachusetts, where she was the children's librarian at the Wayland Public Library for many years.  She received the Emerson Greenaway Award from the New England Library Association (the first children's librarian to do so), was the senior reviewer of the Horn Book Magazine, and taught children's literature at Simmons College, from which she also received an M.A. in English.  After her retirement, she moved to Thetford, Vermont and then to nearby Hanover, New Hampshire, to be near her children Katy and Peter and their families.

She was predeceased by her husband and her daughter Katy.  She is survived by her son Peter and daughter-in-law Joy of Norwich, her son-in-law Paul Gerke of Hanover, and her son Christopher and daughter-in-law Anne of New York City.  She has eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.  She was especially blessed in her last years to have extra care and love provided by Janet Chamberlain.

She was a member of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Norwich.

Enthusiastic and spirited, she will be missed by all who knew her.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the Millennium Fund, Wayland Free Public Library, 5 Concord Road, Wayland, MA 01778, or St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, 262 Main Street, P. O. Box 306, Norwich, VT 05055.

A private funeral service with the family will be held at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church.