Anna Mary Heywood

Anna Mary Chidester Anna Mary Heywood (née Chidester), 88, departed this life on August 22 at Swan Creek Retirement Village. She was born in 1923 to Anna Wailes Chidester (of Baltimore, 1889-1982) and Murray B. Chidester (1899-1936), who drilled oil wells in Wood County in the 1920s and 30s. When Anna Mary was a child, the Chidester family moved from Bowling Green, Ohio to Ottawa Hills, where she lived most of her life. Anna Mary was in the first graduating class of Ottawa Hills High School (1941) and attended Sweet Briar College during the war years; she graduated cum laude in 1945 with a pre-med major. She worked as a medical technician at Mercy Hospital and the Toledo Clinic, and in 1951 married William H. Heywood, Jr., a Toledo widower with three small children. Together they raised six children, spending four years in Ft. Wayne, Ind. and a year in Pottstown, Pa. during the 1960s. Bill worked for Dana Corp. his entire career and retired in 1982 as a division president; he died after a sudden illness in 1989. Anna Mary described herself as a full-time mother, wife, and volunteer, and was devoted to family, church, and service to others. A life-long athlete, she took particular pride in winning the Grandmothers’ Golf Tournament at Toledo Country Club. She enthusiastically applied her considerable intelligence and optimism to volunteer activities. Anna Mary served as a member of the Ottawa Hills School Board (1962-64) and Village Council (1980-87); as Treasurer of the Junior League of Toledo; on the YWCA Board and the United Way allocations committee; as a reader for the Toledo Society for the Blind; and on the Vestry of St. Michael’s in the Hills Episcopal Church in the 1970s and 1990s. A founding member of St. Michael’s, she was Senior Warden in 1976, the first woman to serve in that capacity at St. Michael’s and possibly in the Diocese of Ohio. She was predeceased by her daughter Anne Heywood Jacobus of Toledo, and is survived by her brother, Murray Brown Chidester of Hendersonville, NC, 5 children (William H. Heywood, III (Fredi) of Maumee, Stephanie Heywood of Napa, Calif., John C. Heywood (Helena) of St. Davids, Pa., David A. Heywood (Barbara) of Potomac, Md., and Robert E. Heywood (Becky) of Nashville, Tenn.), 10 grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren. Services will be held at 11:00 on Saturday, September 15th at St. Michael’s, 4718 Brittany Rd., Toledo, immediately followed by visitation with her family and a reception at St. Michael’s. Please sign the online registry at CoyleFuneralHome.com. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial donations to Swan Creek Retirement Village, 5916 Cresthaven Ln., Toledo, Ohio 43614, or the YWCA of Northwest Ohio, 1018 Jefferson Ave., Toledo, Ohio 43604.

Anna Mary Heywood

November 13, 1923 - August 22, 2012