Anne Farr Friend, 83, passed
away peacefully on February 1, 2021 in
Sarasota, Florida after an extended illness.
Anne was born January 24, 1938 in Decatur,
Indiana and grew up in Elkhart, Indiana
until her early teens when her father
retired to Americus, Georgia as a gentleman
farmer. She loved horseback riding on the
farm and graduated from Americus High
School. She attended Florida State
University for two years on a music
scholarship and joined Delta Delta Delta
sorority. She left college and married
Harrold Bowen of Americus in 1957 and they
were married 27 years. She had two boys,
Fred and Lee, and lived in Atlanta from 1959
until returning to Americus in 1976. From
the mid-sixties until the mid-seventies she
and the boys spent summers at the family
cabin at Lake Burton, GA where Anne was a
talented slalom water skier.
Anne became a full-time
resident of Amelia Island, Florida in 1985.
She married the love of her life, Jerry
Friend, in 1987 and they were married until
he passed away in 2007. She enjoyed tennis
and golf and socializing with friends at
Amelia Island. She was quite active at both
the Amelia Plantation Chapel and First
Presbyterian Church in Fernandina Beach and
served on the choir and as a wedding
coordinator. Anne was a hard working, very
successful real estate agent in Amelia
Island from 1996 until she retired in 2015.
She loved helping people buy or sell their
homes and formed close friendships with many
of her clients. She was a board member of
and heavily involved with the Amelia
Island/Nassau County Association of Realtors
and was honored by that group as Realtor of
the Year in 2002.
Anne contracted transverse
myelitis, a very rare autoimmune disorder,
in August 2016 and the cause was never
determined. She bravely battled the disease
and became very proficient with her
wheelchair despite the fact she was
paralyzed from the sternum down for the last
four and a half years of her life.
Anne is survived by son, Fred
Bowen and daughter-in-law, Kristin; son, Lee
Bowen and daughter-in-law, Jodi;
granddaughter, Kelley Bowen, and her
husband, Oliver Atcheson,; sister, Kay
Driscol; brother, John Farr and
sister-in-law, Betty; and numerous nieces
and nephews. A private service will be held
at Amelia Plantation Chapel columbarium at a
later date.
Obituary submitted by Lee Bowen
