Birth Date:
1941-09-16
Deceased Date:
2023-11-27
Obituary:
Anne Swanson Anderson Driscoll of Des Moines passed away on November 27, 2023. A Celebration of her Life will be held at 10:00 a.m., Monday, December 4, 2023 at Scottish Rite Park Penthouse, 2909 Woodland Avenue, Des Moines. Anne was cremated and her ashes are interred in a handmade ceramic apple made by her cousin, Lynn Seydel. Anne will be placed, next to her husband, in the columbarium at the Iowa Veterans Cemetery, near Van Meter, IA, 11:00 a.m., Tuesday, December 5, 2023.
Anne was born September 16, 1941, in Alta, IA to Everett and Ruth Swanson. Her mother died in childbirth. Anne was adopted by her aunt and uncle, Art and Vella Anderson, (sister of Everett Swanson) of Gowrie, IA. Anne's early years were in Rockwell City, IA where her father was Superintendent of the School. It was there that she started "playing school", her favorite activity. At 8 years of age, she started her picture files and even used some of them in her teaching career!
Her family moved to Des Moines, IA in 1951, where she went to Monroe Elementary for one year. Then to the "new" Franklin Junior High and Roosevelt High School, graduating in 1959.
She was very active at Roosevelt High School. Her favorite was being president of Future Teachers of America (FTA). She created an exchange between Roosevelt future teachers and the students at Hubbell Elementary. They helped the teachers and listened to the students read. It was very successful. She loved her years of learning and could not wait to go to Drake University to become a teacher. At Drake she was president of KBK, a student teacher's organization of 450 members. She was very involved in student ISEA and NEA.
She was initiated into Delta Kappa Gamma (teachers' sorority) and Delta Kappa Psi (honorary teachers' sorority). She loved her service sorority, BKG, Beta Kappa Gamma. They did community projects. She had offices in all the organizations she joined. She hosted, with the Dean of Education, outstanding educators that came to Drake as guest speakers. She loved everything about Drake and served on the Student Alumni Board later to become a member of the Drake National Alumni Board during her teaching career and after she retired became an "unofficial ambassador of Drake."
Her love of teaching started at Greenwood Elementary in Des Moines, IA where she taught 1st and 2nd grade for 11 years. She loved going to National Teachers Conventions and bringing back many innovative ideas and knowledge to share with her students such as the first use of a real military parachute in PE (in the gym with first graders). In Des Moines she was the first elementary teacher to use a polyethylene "under the water" 10' huge cube, full of sand, shells, some blow up animals and 3 films going on 3 walls of the cube. Her students learned a lot about science. She was the first in Des Moines to have a set of six TR5-80 computers in her classroom. Students were so excited to have the Superintendent of Schools come to see what they learned! Anne was chosen to plan, stage, and carry out several social study lessons with the help of a social studies TV teacher.
The list of Anne's accomplishments goes on and on. She was a supervisor of students from Drake, ISU, UNI and U of I. Anne and a 5th grade teacher created "7-11 Pals" at Greenwood. They did all sorts of things together through the year, finishing with a book written by their 5th grade pal. One of her proudest achievements was a former student who wrote a book and included a paragraph in the forward about Anne and how she encouraged her in higher education - lawyer, author, professor and Dean of the College of Women's Literature and Law at the University of Cincinnati.
Anne received her BA and MS from Drake University and had begun to work towards her doctorate. She was nominated by one of her former students to be Who's Who in American Teachers. Principals, teachers, parents and students loved her for her professionalism and kind and caring manner. She retired in 1996 after teaching at Rice, Monroe and Casady. Her goal was to teach until age 55 and she did it.
It was in her 10th year of teaching that she met a submarine sailor (land duty at Ft. Des Moines not Gray's Lake!) through two of her students' parents, and in 1973 married Donald Driscoll at the P.E.O. headquarters in Des Moines. A year after they were married, they moved to Hawaii where Anne learned ALL about the Navy. She had many a story to tell about overseeing 60 women plus lots of children while their husbands were out to sea! After Don's retirement of 20 years, they returned to Des Moines. She became very involved in Don's Masonic organization. She worked with him as he worked towards and later became Master of Kadosh, the highest office of Masonry. In 1991, she was given the proud honor of being selected Iowa Masonic Teacher of the Year.
Her passion for over 65 years was working as a volunteer at the Salisbury House in Des Moines starting with Future Teachers, being a tour guide during the Iowa State Teachers Convention. Through the years she did inventory of collections, holiday decorating, and holding the $4 million check when the Salisbury House Foundation bought it. She took historical photos as restoration of the house happened inside and out. She worked at parties, weddings, plays, etc., whenever she could.
Anne was very active in her church, Westminster Presbyterian Church and was a member over 65 years. In her youth, she was the top girl student in Youth Club. She was a Sunday school teacher, vacation Bible school teacher, was in the high school and adult choir, a Deacon, an Elder three different times (1st student to be on the church session), and 2nd woman to serve on the session the year the union of the United Presbytery and USA Presbyterian Youth was held. She was President of the SW Presbyterian Council. She was in the first English handbell choir in Des Moines and went to the first handbell choir convention in Ipswich, Massachusetts.
She loved being a part of the life of Des Moines and in later life always kept an eye on the reconstruction of the downtown area. Some of her activities included a founder and trustee of the Iowa Shakespeare Experience. Anne was a proud 60+ year member of P.E.O. Chapter HX. She provided leadership in many different clubs and organizations. She also was a 25+ year member of DMWC (Des Moines Women's Club) and provided leadership in many areas, including Vice President.
At Scottish Rite Park, she served as P.E.O. SRP Group President. She loved going to movies, watching educational TV, playing bridge, and was an England's Royal Family Watcher since Elizabeth was a teen! She loved to make albums and scrapbooks and writing journals about their travels.
She and Don were privileged to travel extensively through Europe, Scandinavia, specifically Sweden, where all of Anne's descendants came from (she is 100% Swedish and proud of it), British Isles, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Canada and Hawaii. She gave over 25 programs on their "Trip of a Lifetime" about the Queen Elizabeth II and the Concorde. Anne was a lifelong student and always relished learning and experiencing new things. "Live Good Until You Die" she said often.
Anne is survived by her half-brother, James Swanson (Kathy) of Southport, NC; and half-sister, Joann (Bill) Soults of Berlin, MD; biological uncle, Dean Koeppen of South Sioux City, NE; nephew, Dan Soults (Kelly) of Springfield, VA; and nieces Carrie Soults of Durango, CO; Jana Schlegel of Muskego, WI; Becky (Justin) Revand of Seattle, WA; cousins, Patricia (Ron) Galls of Marcus, IA; Doug (Diane) Henke of Washta IA; Scott (Sandy) Henke of Bloomington, MN; Lynn Seydel of Ames, IA; Kay Craig of Ames, IA; Beth (Mark) Duede of Santa Rosa, CA; Jane (Sam) Lopez de Victoria of Miami, FL; BJ White of Phoenix, AZ; and many grand nieces and nephews. Anne was preceded in death by her biological parents, Everett and Ruth Swanson, her adopted parents, Art and Vella Anderson, and many aunts and uncles.
Anne wanted to extend a special thank you to her many friends and the entire staff at Scottish Rite Park for their wonderful friendship and care over the years. Memorial contributions may be directed to Drake University Education Fund, Scottish Rite Park or Westminster Presbyterian Church. Online condolences are welcome at www.IlesCares.com.
