A Notice to all of Ann's friends and followers

Dear Friends of Ann, from here in Los Osos and around the world - If you are trying to contact Ann, it is with deep sadness and regret that I must tell you that we lost Ann to a rapidly advancing pancreatic cancer on Thursday July 9, 2015; she had to stop writing as the illness progressed and she may not have had any time to say her goodbyes to you.

I have posted her obituary, a facebook notice and an invitation to all of her friends to attend a potluck dinner and memorial celebration to be held on Saturday, August 1 from 2-6 pm at the Los Osos Community Center (2160 Palisades Avenue). Please bring your favorite dish, and stories, photos and memories of Ann to share.

 

Also within the obituary, you will find the address of her favorite charity, "SLO-4-Pups/SLO-Post", where donations can be sent in her memory, in order to help support the continued operations of the first off-leash dog park that Ann, along with her dog loving friends, founded.  The dog park is located at El Chorro Regional Park, on Highway 1 across from Cuesta College and was a place very dear to her heart. 
 

Thank you from Lisa Schicker, one of Ann's many, many Los Osos friends.

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a great picture of Ann and her beloved basenjis

 

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Ann's Obituary
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Ann Calhoun

Ann Calhoun lost her battle with pancreatic cancer on July 9, 2015, at age 72.

Ann was born in Sacramento in April 1943 to Marvin and Mary Hughes.  The family moved to Coachella Valley when Ann was five years old and she attended school there through high school, majoring in art during her high school years. She receiving many awards for her art and was class salutatorian when she graduated from Coachella Valley High School in 1961.

After high school Ann attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. During that time she met a soldier named David Calhoun and married him in 1965. David was stationed at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, where they lived until David left the army. The couple returned to Los Angeles, and David became a county probation officer. Ann stayed home and became a gourmet cook. After David's sudden death at age 39, Ann decided to go back to college at California State University, Long Beach. She earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1982.

Ann became Manager of the Simard/Haim Gallery in Los Angeles (no longer in existence). The gallery specialized in works by emerging artists from culturally diverse Southern California. One of the artists featured by the gallery was John Valadez, a graduate of CSU Long Beach. Ann purchased a work by John called "La Butterfly," now a nationally famous painting that has been shown all over the United States. Ann bequeathed "La Butterfly" to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Eventually Ann tired of living in Los Angeles, left the art scene and moved to Los Osos. Switching careers, she became a writer. She helped to start a local newspaper called Bear Facts in 1985, as a writer and editor.  A few years later Ann began writing a column titled "Calhoun's Can(n)ons,"  which was first published by the (now defunct) Morro Bay Sun Bulletin, a biweekly newspaper. After 1992, the column continued in the various resurrections of the Los Osos Bay News, Bay Breeze, Bay News (again), and Bay News-Tolosa Press.  

In 2005, the Can(n)on was added to the Central Coast News Mission blog site. The address is calhounscannon.blogspot.com. Ann posted her final entry on June 17th.

Ann became very active in her community and was more than generous in helping others. She helped to paint three of the Los Osos murals, became an Elfin Forest Weed Warrior for Small Wilderness Area Preservation (SWAP) and joined in many other community projects. Her greatest loves were her dogs: a clan of basenjis, three greyhounds, a whippet and a sloughi. Seeing the need for an off-leash dog park, Ann, Nancy Conant and other like-minded dog lovers founded SLO-4-Pups, a non-profit organization with a mission to encourage dog parks. They were successful in establishing the first off-leash dog park located at El Chorro Regional Park.

Ann is survived by her sister, Joan Hughes, of Fresno.  

There will be a potluck celebration of Ann's life at the Los Osos Community Center on Saturday, August 1, from 2:00 to 6:00pm. Please, no flowers. Donations in memory of Ann to SLO-4-Pups will be gratefully received and will help support the park she loved. Make checks payable and mail to “SLO-4-Pups/SLO Post”, P.O. Box 573, Morro Bay, CA, 93443. For details about donating, call 235-5949.

Please Sign her guestbook at sanluisobispo.com/obituaries

thank you!

 

In memoriam of our dearly departed friend Ann Calhoun, a potluck and celebration of her life will be held at the South Bay Community Center - 2180 Palisades Avenue in Los Osos on Saturday, August 1, 2015 from 2-6 pm - everyone is invited - please bring your favorite dish and memories and stories of Ann, who left this earth way too early! Please pass this message to others, thank you and hope to see you there! http://www.southbaycommunitycenter.com

 — with Ann Calhoun at Los Osos Community Center.

This was posted by one of Ann's many Los Osos friends, with love and compassion from

Lisa Schicker  (lisaschicker@sbcglobal.net)