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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.
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