Mary Annabelle Fant died Saturday, March 15, 2008, at Orange County Nursing Home.
Mary was born July 16, 1913, a daughter of the late Frederick Burton "Bertie" Graf and Addie Estell Terry of Texarkana, Texas. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by a brother, William Aldin; and two sisters, Elma Louise and Edna Terry.
Mary was valedictorian of her high school class and worked in a candy kitchen where she met and married her husband, Autra Fant, of Hope, Ark., in January 1937. Their early years of marriage were spent in Jasper, Texas, where she learned to hunt and to fish. She became an excellent cook.
In 1948, the family moved to East Ridge, Tenn., a sub-urb of Chattanooga, where Autra was employed by Mueller Company, an iron foundry. During the following years, Mary was active in school events and became an accomplished grower and presenter of flowers. She won numerous awards for artistic flower arrangements and became an accredited flower show judge. She also raised award-winning dahlias. She developed a love for deep sea fishing and often went to Destin, Fla., in search of red snapper.
In the mid-1960s, Mary and Autra began to take vacations to the newly formed Toledo Bend reservoir on the Texas-Louisiana border where they could fish, and enjoy their grandchildren. When Autra retired from Mueller, they moved to Hemphill, Texas, and built a home on the lake. There they raised wonderful gardens with tomatoes and sweet corn, and continued to fish. Mary became an active member of the local garden club.
The onset of dementia clouded her golden years, and the quality of her life steadily deteriorated. Ultimately Mary and Autra moved to Lake of the Woods in Orange County to be near their son.
Mary is survived by her son, Bert Thomas Fant and his wife, Patricia, of Spotsylvania County; two grandchildren, Kathryn Marie Vigezzi of Germantown, Md., and Russell Thomas Fant of Charlotte, N.C.; and five great-grandchildren. Her husband, Autra Gibbs Fant, died Nov. 8, 2001, in Culpeper County.
A private family service will be held at Laurel Hill Funeral Home, Spotsylvania.
Dementia can and does erode away the dignity of life, but it cannot erase a life. Those things accomplished during our vigor and vibrancy are not canceled or even diminished by the failings of our brains in the twilight. Let us praise our productive years and remember them, not the shadows that come before death.