Anna Ve Stevens Farr died at home in the early hours of Jan 28, 2018, her husband Jerry, her daughter Joanna and her son Steven at her side. The world will miss her unconditional compassion, her mischievous humor and her infectious laugh.
For decades, Anna was a leader of political and educational activism in San Marcos. She walked countless miles, knocking on doors, advocating for candidates and causes to protect the environment, education, and equity. With an unwavering sense of justice, she challenged and changed decisions from City Hall to the University President’s office to the County Commissioner’s Office. To her last breath, she believed in the good of all people and was determined to live her life by the values she wanted to see in the world around her.
Anna’s personal life and career were motivated by her love for children. As an elementary school teacher in San Antonio and Lockhart, she brought the gift of literacy to hundreds of students. Then, as a professor of education and supervisor of student teachers at Texas State for decades, she influenced the lives of many thousands of children by training and supporting hundreds of our community’s teachers.
Among her favorite causes was the Hays County Child Protective Board, which she helped found in 1978. Over the course of 40 years, she tirelessly advocated for foster children in our community, even and especially when that meant representing their interests in the halls of government.
Among other accolades, Anna was recognized at various points in her life as San Marcos’s “Woman of the Year” and the Central Texas Council of Child Protection Board’s “Volunteer of the Year.” Her most cherished recognition might have been the establishment of the Anna Ve Farr Heroes in Education Award, an annual award for educators who serve children most in need, especially abused and neglected children in foster care.
Anna’s own children and grandchildren (and Shelties) were the center of her being. She was a fixture at Joanna’s and Steven’s science fairs, swim meets, and softball games (even though she wasn’t that into science, swimming and sports). Her grandchildren Calla, Clara, Jeremiah and Ella were unquestionably the light of her life. Her pride in them fueled her sparkle and smiles, even as her physical health declined in recent years.
Anna’s loyalty to family and friends was forged by close relationships with her aunts and cousins in Sargent, Texas, and built on her admiration for her father John Stevens and mother Willie Lou Freeman. The tragic early loss of her sister Rita Faye reinforced her desire to keep her family close, and throughout her life she built close circles of loyal relationships. So many people around her, especially Joanna’s husband Otto Tegtmeyer and Steven’s wife Hannah McElhinny, felt Anna’s welcoming embrace as family.
Anna spoke fondly of growing up with her chickens and cows on her family’s ranch in Matagorda County. The love of her life, Jerry, grew up just a few miles down the road, although they did not discover their connection until they both moved to San Marcos to attend Southwest Texas State Teacher’s College. And while Anna and Jerry built exactly the lives they wanted in San Marcos, Anna was never more at home than when she was playing dominoes, warmly teasing and being teased, and nurturing her family in Sargent. We’re so grateful that, just as she cherished throughout her life, circles of friends and family from both Sargent and San Marcos were together around her in her dying hours, sharing the stories and love that made her so happy.
Anna — our wife, mother, Nanna, cousin, and friend — was a spark of warmth and light in all our lives. While we are devastated to have lost her, we are all better for having basked in her infinite empathy, her fierce devotion, and her unconditional faith in each of us. Her loving laugh will echo in our hearts, always.
In lieu of flowers, please consider making a contribution either to the Hays County Child Protection Board for the benefit of foster children in and around San Marcos (checks can be sent to HCCPB, 605 Rogers, San Marcos, TX 78666), or to the Stevens Family Scholarship Fund which Anna created many years ago to help students from in and around Sargent go to college (checks can be sent to Gerald Farr, 1022 Stagecoach Trail, San Marcos, TX 78666).