Ann Hayden passed away on New Year’s Eve, one of her favorite days of the year, surrounded by her family at her home in Savannah, Georgia, after a valiant battle with cancer. She was seventy-one.
Born in Clairfield, Tennessee, on 28 November 1949 to Betty Mae Garrison, she was raised among a large extended family and a close-knit community of neighbors in Dorton Branch, Kentucky. Ann spent her childhood playing with her friends and cousins, listening to music, playing softball, and laughing with friends on the porch of a country store while eating a candy bar and swigging from a bottle of RC Cola with peanuts.
At Bell County High School, she twirled a mean baton as a majorette and, after graduating in 1967, she moved to Michigan to start her life with Harold “Bud” Hayden, the love of her life. The following year they married in Hamilton, Ohio, where they lived for several years and had their beloved daughter, Marcy. But she couldn’t escape the pull of the mountains—the place she always called home—and she returned with her family in 1974. She worked for nearly forty years at Pineville Community Hospital’s Home Health Agency before retiring in 2017 and dividing her time between Dorton Branch and Savannah, Georgia.
Ann cherished her family and friends. Independent, kind, and honest, you always knew where you stood with her. An expert candy-maker, her peanut butter roll and fudge were unsurpassed and always in high-demand, and her No-Bake Cookies were especially loved by her granddaughter. Her favorite color was pale green, like her eyes, and her favorite hymn was “Thank You Lord, For Your Blessings On Me.” She loved coffee, Bud’s yellow cake with buttercream icing, sweet potato casserole, mulled cranberry punch, shopping trips with her daughter, travelling, the sound of the ocean, her daughter’s scalp and hand massages, Motown and the music of the 1960s, the evening news, procedural crime television shows, watching The Waltons with her nephew, movies (especially westerns), Paul Newman and, above all, her granddaughter Garrison Suzanna, who was the center of her world.
Ann was preceded in death by her mother Betty and her grandparents Garrett and Harriett Garrison. She is survived by her husband of fifty-two years, Bud, of Savannah; her daughter Marcy Frasure, son-in-law Brian Frasure and granddaughter Garrison of Savannah; her step-grandson Brian Patrick (Whitney) Frasure and their son Maverick of Barbourville, Kentucky; her treasured sister Kathy Howard and brother-in-law Chester Howard of Dorton Branch; her nephew and favorite little boy Jason Kyle (Silas House) Howard of Lexington, Kentucky; and her special friend Patsy Mason of Dorton Branch.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there will be no memorial service at this time. In lieu of flowers, donations should be made to the Epilepsy Foundation, which can be found online at www.epilepsy.com or by phone at 800.332.1000, in honor of Ann’s granddaughter.
Good night, Mary Ellen. Good night, John Boy. Good night, Veronica.
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Fox & Weeks Funeral Directors, Islands Chapel, Savannah, GA 912-898-0900