Beloved and tireless Navy volunteer, children's advocate, educator, gardener and parent cultivated relationships around the world
On the 2nd of June, 2022 Anna Elizabeth MacWilliams Neville died after 98 years of a life well lived. She was at the home she grew up in, with her daughter, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and other family members — all spending time together, just how she wanted it. Born in St. Albans, Vt., on July 22,1924, she was the first child of Pearl Ann (Grant) MacWilliams of Miragamish, Nova Scotia, and Ralph Caldwell MacWilliams of Elysburg, Pa. Her father, the Franklin County agent for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, purchased the farm on Georgia Shore Road in 1926, and it remains the much-loved “home base” of the family. Anna loved accompanying her father as he visited local farms, learning about agriculture, lessons on a lifetime of public service, and where the best homemade cookies were to be found. Thanks to her mother, Anna was one of Vermont’s first Girl Scouts and later a local troop leader introducing girls to camping and the adventures of hiking the Long Trail. Later she would work for the GS Council of greater Detroit as a leader of one of the nation's earliest integrated troops. Anna had an early interest in aviation, decorating the attic playroom with posters of planes. She had ambitions of being a pilot and traveling the world, the latter of which she admirably achieved. For her 12th birthday in 1936, she took her first flight on Central Vermont Airways from Burlington to Montpelier. After being graduated from Bellows Free Academy in St. Albans in 1942, Anna headed down Route 7 to Middlebury College, where she majored in sociology and graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in just three years. A month before graduation, she and her mother took the train to Boston so that Anna could join the U.S. Navy. Since she wasn’t yet 21 years old, she needed a parent’s permission to become one of the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, or WAVES. She served in Long Beach, Calif., as a pharmacist’s mate, second class. Even after leaving the Navy, she retained much of the sailor’s vocabulary she had acquired and applied it in conversation as circumstances warranted. After doing her part to pave the way for women in the U.S. military, Anna used her G.I. Bill benefits to attend Columbia University Teachers College, where she lived at International House and earned a master’s degree in international and intercultural education. There, she met Linda Tsao…
Beloved and tireless Navy volunteer, children's advocate, educator, gardener and parent cultivated relationships around the world
On the 2nd of June, 2022 Anna Elizabeth MacWilliams Neville died after 98 years of a life well lived. She was at the home she grew up in, with her daughter, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and other family members — all spending time together, just how she wanted it. Born in St. Albans, Vt., on July 22,1924, she was the first child of Pearl Ann (Grant) MacWilliams of Miragamish, Nova Scotia, and Ralph Caldwell MacWilliams of Elysburg, Pa. Her father, the Franklin County agent for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, purchased the farm on Georgia Shore Road in 1926, and it remains the much-loved “home base” of the family. Anna loved accompanying her father as he visited local farms, learning about agriculture, lessons on a lifetime of public service, and where the best homemade cookies were to be found. Thanks to her mother, Anna was one of Vermont’s first Girl Scouts and later a local troop leader introducing girls to camping and the adventures of hiking the Long Trail. Later she would work for the GS Council of greater Detroit as a leader of one of the nation's earliest integrated troops. Anna had an early interest in aviation, decorating the attic playroom with posters of planes. She had ambitions of being a pilot and traveling the world, the latter of which she admirably achieved. For her 12th birthday in 1936, she took her first flight on Central Vermont Airways from Burlington to Montpelier. After being graduated from Bellows Free Academy in St. Albans in 1942, Anna headed down Route 7 to Middlebury College, where she majored in sociology and graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in just three years. A month before graduation, she and her mother took the train to Boston so that Anna could join the U.S. Navy. Since she wasn’t yet 21 years old, she needed a parent’s permission to become one of the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, or WAVES. She served in Long Beach, Calif., as a pharmacist’s mate, second class. Even after leaving the Navy, she retained much of the sailor’s vocabulary she had acquired and applied it in conversation as circumstances warranted. After doing her part to pave the way for women in the U.S. military, Anna used her G.I. Bill benefits to attend Columbia University Teachers College, where she lived at International House and earned a master’s degree in international and intercultural education. There, she met Linda Tsao…