Ann was born on August 10, 1932, in Vermontville, Michigan, to Earl and Alma “Betty” (Kraus) Gehman. The oldest of three children, she grew up on her family’s farm in Michigan and often spent winters with her family in Delray Beach, Florida.
She learned to drive at an early age and, since her father owned an airplane, she also took flying lessons as a teenager and managed to secure her pilot’s license before she had a license to drive a car.
Ann graduated from Charlotte High School in 1949 and attended Albion College, where she earned an A.B. in art and education in 1953. She married Morris Clark Taber on June 26, 1954, and lived in different places in Michigan and elsewhere—including a year in Cambridge, England in 1964—before settling down in Ann Arbor in 1965.
In 1965 she became an elementary school librarian and media specialist at Willow Run Schools, outside Ypsilanti, Michigan, where she worked for 29 years before retiring in 1994. Ann served in various positions at Willow Run in addition to that of librarian—public relations, a short stint as acting principal (which she gladly gave up to return to the classroom), and as a remedial reading teacher.
While working full-time and raising two sons, she found time to earn an M.A. in Library Science from the University of Michigan in 1966, and another master’s degree in the teaching of reading from Oakland University in 1981.
Ann’s life was filled with a deep and enduring love of books and reading, both professionally and personally. As a librarian, reading teacher, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother she inspired countless children all over the world to discover the joys of reading. And when she was done with work for the day she liked nothing better than to curl up in her comfy chair reading a novel by Barbara Kingsolver or Dorothy Sayers or one of her many other favorite authors.
Exploring new places was another of Ann’s great joys. She and Morris travelled to all corners of the world, sometimes just for leisure but more often than not with an educational or service goal in mind. After a trip to Zimbabwe in 1999 and a semester assisting in setting up a library at a primary school in Mutare, Zimbabwe, Ann and Morris devoted much of their time and resources to assisting Zimbabwean youth in furthering education.
Ann was an early and ardent feminist and a long-time supporter of women’s rights and education. Her sons remember reading her copies of Ms. Magazine when they arrived in the mail at home and sometimes sang along with her to Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman (Hear Me Roar!)” She strongly believed that women and children bore the brunt of social inequality and that education and equality could provide solutions.
She was also a very early adopter of computer technology for use both in education and for recreation. Ann bought an Apple IIe in 1983 and used it, and many other subsequent Apple computers, to create multimedia presentations of her travels as well as to pass the time playing all of the early computer games. She bought one of the first Apple Watches in 2018 at age 86 and it saved her life five years later in 2023 when she suffered a stroke alone at home and her watch automatically notified her son that she needed help.
Ann had an infectious, off-beat, and often irreverent sense of humor that endeared her to her family, her many friends, her students, and to anyone else she happened to meet along the way. We all will miss this more than anything else.
She is survived by her sons, Mark (Colleen) Taber and Steven (Julie) Taber; sister Carole (Larry) Essenmacher; brother William (Cynthia) Gehman; grandchildren Melinda (Matthew) Taber Bradley, Christopher Taber, David (Brittney) Hall, SA Hall, Alina (Jackie) Taber, Alphonzo Hall; many great-grandchildren and nieces and nephews; and her beloved cat, Delilah. Ann was preceded in death by her parents and husband, Morris.
A Celebration of Life memorial service will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, November 8, at First United Methodist Church of Ypsilanti, 209 Washtenaw Ave., Ypsilanti, Michigan 48197. A visitation will be held at 12:00 noon at the church, and a luncheon will follow the service. The service will be live-streamed at https://www.youtube.com/live/3546EE7-VqY
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to Cass Community Social Services, Alpha House, Children’s Literacy Network, or First United Methodist Church of Ypsilanti.