Ann Taylor's extraordinary life was one of service and self-sacrifice. To the people and causes she loved, her friendship and generosity were limitless. At an early age, she learned to believe in herself and her convictions, and with her own inner compass she held fast to this truth about herself, never faltering.
She was blessed with a truly devoted mother, Dorothy Taylor, who was Ann's role model. She demonstrated to her daughter service to others and lived a life of self-sacrifice for those she loved. When Ann's father came home from the War, he left his wife and young daughter. Divorces rarely occurred those many years ago, but her mother taught her to draw from within the strength to overcome the unkind words of her schoolmates, and the murmurs from adults. Ann's mother, instead, showed Ann what service to others meant, working long nursing shifts to support the daughter she loved more than life itself. They lived modestly and frugally, but Ann said learning to do without things other children took for granted and teased her for not having, helped her to see that material things held very little importance compared to the true treasures of life which, ironically, cost nothing but to give of oneself.
Mrs. Taylor (Aunt Dorothy) use to love to tell stories about Ann as a child. Ann's inner glow attracted many admirers when her mother would put her in her stroller for the afternoon air. Everyone wanted to kiss the laughing, rosy-cheeked baby with the ruby lips and blonde curls, so she hung a sign on Ann that said, "Please don't kiss me!" From the time she could walk, Ann played outdoors. Her imagination was limitless and she loved to figure out how mechanical things operated. Ann's mother would come home from work and find that her toaster or their radio had been taken apart! She was fascinated by how things worked and through these early experiments learned there wasn't anything she couldn't figure out for herself and accomplish. She loved to laugh, and she loved to make her mother laugh! So she would put her imagination to work and come up with ways to entertain Aunt Dorothy after a particularly long nursing shift…obviously, a natural born program director! She learned at a young age what it meant to bring joy into the lives of others through laughter and love.
Ann was athletic. She thrived when playing sports and loved competition. She focused on tennis and basketball throughout her school years. One of her early mentors was the well-known coach, Erk Russell. Ann felt it was through him that she understood how profound an effect a true leader can have on young people. She thought that the values she learned as an athlete - self respect, dedication, discipline, loyalty and hard work became the foundation blocks she relied upon so heavily during the 35 years of service she gave to Camp Dixie.
Ann graduated from Grady High School and attended the University of Georgia, earning a B.S. in Education. The day she graduated from Indiana University with a M.S. in Recreation was a time of great celebration and satisfaction for her and her mother. She had earned the highest degree offered in her chosen profession. No one at that ceremony could have guessed that Ann was a child with undiagnosed dyslexia. As with most children with this challenge, she was extremely intelligent and creative but struggled with reading assignments, papers and tests. In grade school they told her Mother she was a "slow learner." Her mother knew how bright her child was and assured Ann she was anything but! In High School she had an educator tell her she would never survive college, "Don't even bother applying!" he told her. Her entire life has been a living example of how to over-come challenges, never shying away from adversity, she believed in following her own inner-spirit. These life lessons and countless others she passed on to us and we will never forget them. We will always remember that anything is possible when you believe that you can succeed.
With a Masters in hand, she went to work with the U. S. Navy in hospital recreation. There she was able to put into practice the lessons she learned from her mother regarding service to others. She valued that experience but knew that working with youth was her destiny. Putting her special gifts to work as the director of several recreation centers in Dekalb and Fulton Counties, she honed the skills she relied upon throughout her career as the Director of Camp Dixie.
Ann and her mother visited Camp Dixie in the spring of 1969. When their car brought them down the drive Ann said she felt a resonance in her heart that was deep and overwhelming. She spent the summer before she took ownership, playing the role of the "Trip Driver" so that she could observe and learn. She let no one know during that summer that she would soon be the new owner and director. This is a trait that she carried with her always at Dixie. Always laughing to herself when someone would call her the "Kitchen Lady" or "Snack Lady" unaware of who she truly was at the time! Title and recognition was never important to Ann. She loved everything about Camp Dixie. The "sisterhood" and "brotherhood" it nurtured and the values it instilled in the youth she grew to know and love. What she felt resounding in her heart when she came down the drive that fateful day was the Spirit of Dixie, and she told us often that she absolutely knew she was home. Ann was only 29 years old, but she stepped into the daunting responsibility of Dixie's Keeper of the Flame with great courage and pride.
Her beloved Camp Dixie fed her spirit and gave her the strength to feed ours. She believed passionately in its purpose, considering herself not the owner of vast property, but the Guardian of its Truths and blessings. Ann practiced humility in such amazing ways. Fulfilling her destiny would ask much of her, but her early lessons of self-sacrifice provided strength to carry these burdens, when many of us would have called it a day time and time again! She loved Camp Dixie and those whose lives she touched completely. Ann worked any job she could to help support her ability to keep the gates open each summer for her beloved campers. She delivered telephone books, drove a school bus, worked in community recreation programs, anything that would allow her to spend the important hours of her days and nights addressing the demands of running Camp Dixie. Still, she found time to work at the Shelters in Atlanta on Thanksgiving and Christmas, delaying her own celebrations to do so.
Instead of paying herself a generous salary, she chose to put most of Dixie's earnings back into the camp. She made it her personal goal to add something that would improve the camp and bring joy to its campers each and every year, no matter how lean a year it might have been. For most of her life this meant neglecting her own needs. If repairs needed to be made at Dixie and at her family home, she would always choose Dixie saying she could do without, but Dixie could not. While others would travel and buy personal possessions she would travel only to recruit for the camp she loved and believed in fervently, denying herself simple pleasures we take for granted daily.
She loved and respected the generations above her. When she moved to Camp Dixie year round, Ann choose to spend what little free time she allowed herself working with the "Meals On Wheels" program through The Senior Center. Yet, she still felt she wasn't "doing enough" and would bring seasonal "happies" to her charges while she sat and visited with each of them every week. She cherished her many special friendships made with the other "seniors" at the Center and enjoyed thoroughly the outings they would take together. These friendships were precious to her.
It was only in the last decade of a life taken too soon, and after much debate with herself, that she finally gave herself permission to build a permanent home at Dixie. Even then, however, she included a large addition to use as the "Education Building," saying she just could not build this building for her only to enjoy! Ann was planning to take her first real vacation in thirty-five years to Hawaii next summer, after much persuasion from her business partner and adopted daughter, Rhonda Conrad. She had said often that she never really felt like anywhere on earth could possibly be more beautiful than Camp Dixie!
This year, in a terrible storm, Ann's family home in Atlanta was severely damaged. When she realized the home she was raised in was at risk, she finally allowed herself to begin the extensive renovations needed. We hope she will be watching from above at their completion this fall. She gave too much, but for those of us whose lives she touched so profoundly, we thank her for the light in our lives she has always been. We feel blessed to have had the good fortune of her leadership and we are eternally grateful for her love, her laughter, her ability to play at every stage of her life, her sense of joy and wonderment in God's beauty, and the numerous life's lessons she taught us that carry us through the challenges we face in our own lives each day.
Generations of young people owe Ann Taylor, Miss Ann, a debt we can never repay. Some have gone on to become governors, teachers, college professors, health professionals, business professionals and directors of youth programs and youth ministries. Whatever our professions, all of her Dixie family have been inspired by her and able to believe in ourselves because she was among the first adult leaders who recognized our individual special gifts, our potential to contribute in the world, and would accept nothing less but our best while under her guidance.
We are left to celebrate her life joyfully together… for there is so much to celebrate! Today we wish to honor Ann. She was a beloved daughter, niece, and cousin, adopted mother, adopted grandmother and a friend to so many blessed lives! Although she was an only child, her Dixie family numbers in the thousands and she is "Family" to us all! Her life's work of service and sacrifice is now her great legacy. Let us all keep her flame forever bright in our hearts! God Bless You, Ann, and keep you safe in our Lord's loving arms. Amen!
Sally Church - Dicharay,
Honor Camper, Head Counselor, Life Long Friend
Remembering the life of Ann Taylor