Anne Riegel Parrish

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Anne Riegel Parrish (1923-2017) departed this life on April 5, 2017, at Leeward Manor Fleet Landing, Atlantic Beach, Florida. The young lady who grew up with her sister Betty in the historic “Hourglass House” in Germantown, Philadelphia, lived a full and rewarding life as the beloved wife of Col. Anthony R. Parrish, USAF, and mother of their three sons, John (San Francisco), Anthony (Miami) and James (Washington, DC). She is also survived by two grandsons, John and Kyle.

Anne was the daughter of Jacob and Georgiana Pitfield Riegel. A loyal alumna of Germantown Friends School, she treasured her family’s deep ties to Philadelphia, a heritage that extended back to Colonial times. In 1945, she married a newly minted West Point officer in the Army Air Corps. Becoming the wife of a military pilot meant a life of constant travel and change. She made a home for her family in a dozen or more states from Maine to Texas. “

Twenty three moves in 24 years” from post-war Berlin to pre-statehood Hawaii, provided unending adventures and challenges. The“service life”, as she called it, included several tours at the Pentagon in Washington. Through it all, she prized the many, many friends made and kept over the years. While Anne’s focus was always on supporting her husband in hismilitary career and the education of her sons, she was also an accomplished watercolor artist, short story writer and inveterate reader.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s Gift From the Sea was always at Anne’s bedside with words that described her own life:  “In the small circle of the home she has never quite forgotten the particular uniqueness of each member of the family; the spontaneity of now; the vividness of here.  This is the basic substance of life.”

Anne will finally rest next to her husband in Arlington National Cemetery.

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