March 16, 1956 - June 10, 2024
Anne Harlan Hostetler, devoted daughter, beloved sister, cousin, aunt and loyal friend, died peacefully in her sleep at her home on June 10, 2024. She had a prolonged battle with cancer, which ebbed and flowed over the past five years. There were many triumphs but ultimately it just wore her out.
Anne was born in Decatur on March 16, 1956. She attended Dennis, French, Wilson and Stephen Decatur schools (as had her father excepting French), graduating in 1974, and then attending Miami of Ohio. After graduating with a BA in 1978, she joined Walden Books as a manager of a store in Indiana. Shortly thereafter, she elected to go back to school to get a BS in Education at Millikin. She moved to Dallas, taught briefly, then moved on to jobs in the insurance world, becoming an accomplished claims adjustor focused on workers compensation.
The call of Decatur lured her back in 1990, and she settled into life in her hometown. She was an enthusiastic volunteer, joining Junior Welfare, working with the Anna B. Millikin Home, Kemmerer Village, the Macon County Historical Society, PEO and many other local groups, oftentimes in leadership positions. If you wanted someone sociable, organized and efficient to get things done, you wanted her on the team.
She was a voracious reader and early adopter of Amazon, and had works from her list of favorite authors delivered on the day they were released.
Her love of books and teaching led to her work within the Decatur Public Schools, initially as a substitute and teacher's aide, but with several years thereafter as the resource coordinator in the libraries at the Phoenix Academy and at Mary W. French. She had an encyclopedic knowledge of literature for children and young adults. Nothing made her happier than discovering the book or series that would light an interest in one of her students that might lead to a lifetime of reading.
To view the complete obituary, visit
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/herald-review/name/anne-hostetler-obituary?id=55451726
