Obit of Ballard, Ann Thatcher (b436) - Oklahoma County OK

Thanks to http://www.amarillonet.com/ for permission to upload their
obits to the USGenWeb Archives.
Copyright, http://www.amarillonet.com/                    2 Apr 2004
Return to Oklahoma County Archives:
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/oklahoma/oklahoma.html
==========================================================================
                             USGENWEB NOTICE
                     Copyright.  All rights reserved.
             http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
==========================================================================
Ann Thatcher Ballard

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Ann Thatcher Ballard, 72, died Friday, Jan. 18, 2002.

Memorial services will be at 3:30 p.m. Thursday in French Mortuary Wyoming 
Blvd. Chapel, 7121 N.E. Wyoming Blvd. Private burial will be in Santa Fe 
National Cemetery.

Mrs. Ballard was born Sept. 5, 1929, in Oklahoma City. She was the first 
child of Henrietta Amelia Stamp of Wheeling, W.Va., and Stanton Willard 
Thatcher of Wichita Falls, Texas. Her family moved to Santa Fe in 1936. 
She attended grade school at Brownmoor School for Girls at Bishops Lodge.

As a young girl she enjoyed the family ranch, Espiritu Santo, on Holy 
Ghost Creek near Terrero. In 1942, the family moved to Amarillo, Texas 
where she attended Amarillo High School and graduated in 1947. She went to 
Scripps College in Pomona, Calif., for a year and transferred to the 
University of New Mexico, joining Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority. She 
graduated in 1951.

She married Air Force pilot Lt. John Garland Ballard Jr. on April 5, 1952, 
having met him on a blind date in Amarillo. Along with her husband, the 
Air Force became her career, and their first child, Amy, was born in the 
Army Hospital in Fukuoka City, Kyushu, Japan. Assignments led to Stead Air 
Force Base in Reno, Nev.; Wright-Patterson Air Base in Dayton, Ohio and 
Stewart Air Base in Newburg, N.Y., where John III and William Stanton were 
born.

In 1960, the family moved to Menlo Park and Sunnyvale, Calif. John 
received orders to Vietnam and Ann stayed in Sunnyvale where the children 
were attending school. In 1965, Holloman Air Base was their next stop 
before returning to Sunnyvale and then to Washington, D.C., where John 
attended the Industrial College of the Armed Forces and was stationed at 
the Pentagon.

This led to the family's move to Albuquerque where John's last posting was 
Kirkland Air Base. This allowed Ann to meet old friends, mostly members of 
Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority from school. In every new assignment she joined 
a KKG Club, and she recently received her 50-year pin.

In Albuquerque she was a member of Green Thumb Garden Club, Kappa Gourmet, 
Kappa Bridge, Cosmopolitan Bridge and Twentieth Century Club in 
Washington. She volunteered at Presbyterian Hospital for 27 years with the 
Tuesday Hospital Auxiliary. Ann enjoyed attending ACLOA, now Musical 
Theatre Southwest, playing bridge, traveling, music and being with her 
family and friends.

Survivors include her husband; a daughter, Amy of Washington; two sons, 
John and Bill, both of Albuquerque; a grandchild, Stanton of Albuquerque; 
a sister, Karen Freund of Austin, Texas; and a brother, Tom of Amarillo.

The family suggests memorials be to a favorite charity.

Amarillo Globe-News, Jan. 22, 2002 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return to Oklahoma County Archives:
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/oklahoma/oklahoma.html