Ann Spangler

Born in Birmingham, AL on July 14, 1943

Departed on October 24, 2017 and resided in Nashville, TN

Ann Salter Spangler
Nashville, TN

Age 74, passed away October 24, 2017.

Ann was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on July 14, 1943. Her father, Robert Salter, served in Europe in World War II, and Ann was raised mostly by her mother, Ruby Sikes Salter, until he returned home in 1945.

One of Ann's earliest memories was of combing the woods in Alabama, picking blackberries from amongst the brambles. She would bring their trove home to her grandmother, who would whip it up into a cobbler. Later, Ann said she loved sampling the blackberry preserves at Nashville's Loveless Café because it reminded her of that childhood delicacy.

She also spoke fondly of a Birmingham neighbor, Miss Wood, who would give her an early appreciation of arts and culture, and volunteerism, that Ann carried with her throughout her life.

Though she lived in Alabama, Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee throughout the course of her life, at her heart Ann was always a Floridian. When she was 10, her family moved to Bradenton to be close to her maternal grandparents. She had fond memories of swimming off Anna Maria Island, and fishing and camping by the river that ran through her great aunt's land in Ocala.

Later, while at Manatee High School, she discovered her love of journalism while on the staff of the school's award-winning newspaper and as editor of the yearbook. She also recalled the "nerve-wracking" experience of playing the glockenspiel during the school band's performance of the national anthem.

In 1961, Ann enrolled in Samford University, where she majored in English and minored in journalism. She joined the Chi Omega sorority, and during her junior year met her future husband, David Wade Spangler, at the campus' Reid Chapel.

After graduating from Samford in 1965, Ann's first job was in advertising for the Birmingham department store Pizitz, where she was quickly promoted to a copy writer position.

She married David in December 1965, and after he graduated the following year, they moved to his hometown of Parkersburg, West Virginia. She was hired as a teacher for an elementary school in nearby Pettyville, and then later taught reading and writing at a Parkersburg-area junior high school.

Ann and David spent the last few years of the decade in Richmond and Norfolk, Virginia, where she continued to teach while David pursued a career in pharmacy. In Norfolk, she volunteered to teach for one of the city's first integrated junior high schools; to prepare for that she first had to enroll in a federal sensitivity training program.

They moved to Huntington, West Virginia, in 1971, and their son Matthew was born that year. He was followed two years later by the birth of their daughter, Leigh. By that time, the family had taken up residence in Halifax County, Virginia. She taught there for a decade, and counted among her achievements the establishment of an after school reading program at the county junior high. In 1974, Ann and David bought a historic colonial home in Sutherlin, Virginia, which she worked to restore for the next eight years.

Ann moved with her family to Spruce Pine, North Carolina, in 1982, where she was hired by Mitchell High School. She taught English, started the Odyssey of the Mind program, and supervised production of the school newspaper. Her students admired her, with one remembering the "elegant grit" she had about her. One former newspaper staffer credited Ann with pairing her with her future husband.

In 1988, Ann moved with her family to Jacksonville, North Carolina, where she first taught English, and then academically gifted and special needs students. One of her colleagues noted that she led the special education department "with grace, determination, experience and open-mindedness." Ann often said that, in her professional life she "like to leave a place better than I found it," and years later the special education department still utilized the protocol and methods she implemented while heading it up. During this period, she also obtained her Master's in School Administration from East Carolina University.

In the 1990s, Ann bought her own small business, growing and distributing alfalfa sprouts to grocery stores and restaurants in eastern North Carolina. She literally ran the operation out of the garage in her home in the downtown area of Jacksonville.

David Spangler passed away in 1996.

Ann spent over a decade restoring her house in Jacksonville, and when she retired from the Onslow County school system in 2011, she moved to Nashville to be close to her daughter and her family. She bought a house in the Bellevue area, where she often entertained her three grandchildren by hosting "Camp Gigi" (their nickname for her). She appreciated Nashville for being a center of the country's musical history, and connected that with her own family's musical roots. She developed close relationships with many friends and neighbors in Nashville, but through social media also rekindled ties with acquaintances from her youth in Florida.

Ann had also visited Nashville many times since her parents moved there in the early 1970s, where her father started his own construction company. Ruby Salter still resides in Greenbrier.

Despite having touched so many lives during her nearly half a century as an educator, Ann said her greatest accomplishment was seeing her own family receive educations. Her daughter obtained a Master's in Business Administration from Vanderbilt, while her son earned a Master's in Public Policy from George Washington University. He currently resides in the New York area.

"Family comes first," another former colleague recalled Ann saying one time when the coworker had to skip a work meeting to attend to her sick daughter. It was a mantra that guided Ann's entire life.

A Graveside Service will be 11:00am, Friday at Harpeth Hills Memory Gardens, 9090 Hwy 100, Nashville, TN, 37221, 615-646-9292, harpeth hills.com