Anne Savage Barnum
Anne Lyttleton (Savage) Barnum was born on May 30, 1929, the third of three children, to insurance executive Ernest C. Savage and Jane Bell Yeatman Savage.~Anne grew up in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia where she attended the Springside School before boarding at Westover in Connecticut for high school.~ These early years coincided with the onset of World War II.
For college, Anne attended the University of Pennsylvania, where, following her passion, she majored in history.~ As a history enthusiast, she once cited the reign of the Sun King, Louis XIV as her favorite period to study, but then, again, she also loved British history,…and, of course, American history. Her earliest ancestor in America was Thomas Lyttleton Savage who arrived at age 13 in Jamestown, Virginia, from England in 1608 and became an intermediary between the Native Americans and English.
Ever the competitor, Anne was the captain of the badminton team while at college where she also played varsity tennis and field hockey.~Her school yearbook called her the "One-Woman Racqueteer." She was also a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority (then known as a fraternity) and was voted as having the most beautiful hair in the Ivy League. Anne graduated and married William Barnum in 1952.
Anne lived in New York City, briefly doing administrative work, before moving to Greenwich, CT, where she began a family and stayed active in her community through various groups, including the local garden club, Hortulus.~While raising her children, Anne returned to school, Columbia Teachers College, where she received her degree in education in 1968, a time of radical social change and the year of student protests at Columbia. An avid reader all her life, Anne shared this love as a reading specialist for many years at the Whitby and Daycroft Schools in Greenwich and The Caedman School in New York City. Anne instilled a love of reading and language in her own family, reading to her children and, later, to her grandchildren. These were treasured moments.
True to her college yearbook, Anne was an active athlete throughout her life. She spent vacations at the Ausable Club in the Adirondacks where she won multiple tennis tournaments, as well as doubles tournaments at the Acoaxet Club in Westport Harbor,MA. She then became an avid golf player.
Anne was devoted to the little things that mattered - like writing heartfelt letters to celebrate the achievements of those close to her; attending, with white knuckles, her son’s wrestling matches; wielding a hammer in the cold to work on her daughter’s garage; and, again, reading to her children and grandchildren. Anne had a great sense of humor and a knack for setting people at ease wherever she was. Her welcome was always warm, and there was much laughter and love around the dinner table, despite her cooking.
In 2010, Anne moved to Scarborough, Maine, close to her daughter Holly, where she remained until her recent passing on February 1, 2020 at the age of 90 years and 8 months. She had spent her last birthday surrounded by her family in the hometown of her favorite president, John Adams, who also lived to be 90 years and 8 months. Anne was predeceased by her brother, Ernest C. Savage, Jr., of Wilmington, Delaware. She is survived by her sister Janie Roberts of Newtown Square, Pa., and her four children: Anne Alexander, Catherine ‘Holly’ Barnum, William M Barnum, Jr. (Marianne), Nathaniel Barnum (Michaela), and her grandchildren: Celia and Sam Alexander, Catherine ‘Cat’ Wilson and Will Metayer, Eric and Kevin Barnum, and her step-grandchild, Christopher Tsamisis. A
service to honor her life will be held on Saturday, February 29th, at 11a.m. at Christ Church in Greenwich, CT. For those attending the service, it was Anne’s wish that people wear bright colors in celebration of her life.
Online condolences may be expressed below.
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