Anne McCracken, radiant soul, daughter of joy and laughter, beloved mother, grandmother, and mother-in-law, friend and muse to all who ever had the great good fortune to come into her presence, passed away peacefully at her Guemes Island home, on Monday, September 25, 2023, surrounded by her loving family. She was 96.
She was born on July 11, 1927, in Syracuse, New York, to Olive Wheeler and Clyde MacFetridge; the second of three beautiful daughters. The family spent time in Ontario and summered at Skaneatales Lake. As a child, Anne contracted polio and spent a long convalescence with books as her only companions, guides to myriad worlds of romance and adventure, a roadmap for a lifetime. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Mount Holyoke College, followed by a Master of Arts from Cornell University, and post-graduate work at Columbia University.
Ever drawn by the life of the mind, in 1954 she took passage across the Atlantic on an old troop carrier, bound for a summer of study in 17th and 18th century art, literature, and music at the University of London. Among her shipmates was a young artist, Philip McCracken, who was traveling to England to apprentice with famed sculptor Henry Moore. A whirlwind romance between two dreamers ensued, and later that summer they married at the Norman church at Much Hadham, with Moore acting as best man.
The young couple settled first in New York, where Anne taught school to support Philip’s nascent art career. By 1955, they had relocated to a small beach cottage on Guemes Island, where they raised three boys amidst a cacophony of wild creatures, goats, and pets of every kind, as well as a constant flow of extraordinary visitors, poets, artists, musicians, architects, photographers, and actors who were drawn to the couple’s creative vitality and the island’s special beauty. Cooking, canning, gardening, foraging, making goat cheese in the family bathtub, learning to prepare clams, venison, and other gifts of the land and sea, Anne created a life of rich abundance for the young family, and as Philip’s reputation as an artist grew, she matched him step by step with an artistry in hospitality that dazzled collectors and gallery owners as much as the artwork they had come to see. In time, the work of these paired geniuses could not be separated.
But Anne was an educator at heart, and in teaching, she said, she found a practice to which she could give her whole being to a life she loved. She was a celebrated educator who, over the course of 35 years, taught every age from kindergarten to community college. During the latter part of her career, she was department chair for English at Anacortes High School, where she was voted teacher of the year multiple times, beloved by all for her compassion, ability to inspire, and remarkable lesson plans. More than one former student can recall Mrs. McCracken bringing baby goats to school, or introducing them to family friend Margaret Hamilton, the actress better known as the Wicked Witch of the West, or filling an entire classroom with vibrant fall leaves. She chaperoned student trips to Europe and Asia and launched more than a decade of student visits to Ashland, Oregon, to attend the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the first time many students had ever seen a live play. She also organized the student environmental club, celebrating Earth Day by planting flowering trees throughout Anacortes; initiated a Model United Nations program; and coached the debate team. “I want you to get so excited about education, you’ll never stop,” she told her students, and she was herself a lifelong learner, rising each morning with anticipation for what the day would hold.
After retirement, Anne turned full-time to her abiding love for poetry. She was a founding board member of the Skagit River Poetry Foundation and helped to organize the first several Skagit River Poetry Festivals. She threw herself into every aspect of festival planning, from poet recommendations to scheduling. Each biennial festival was heralded by a frenzy of activity at the McCracken dining table, as she read prodigiously the works of new poets, compiled notes with fellow board members, made introductions, and worked to secure venues. During this time, she also founded Piping Rabbit Press, a handset letterpress, and spent many happy hours arranging type and creating exquisite poetry broadsides, often illustrated by Philip. She was an acolyte of beauty who brought an artist’s eye to everything she did, from printing, to friendship, to flower arrangements. She was equally gifted at nurturing the careers of young teachers, artists, and poets, many of whom sought out her guidance as they embarked on lives of service and imagination.
To meet Anne was to be entranced for a lifetime. She was impossibly charming, a legendary hostess, famed for her warmth, conversation, and bountiful table. Entering the family home, one experienced a kind of transcendent space where guests, children, poetry, music, art, storytelling, and myriad family pets received equally rapt attention. Many strangers became friends over a cup of tea at her table, and one never left her presence without a poem pressed into one’s hands, chosen from the thousands she collected over her long life. She was serious about seeking the holy in every moment, yet as lighthearted a being as one could ever meet, a mischievous natural comedian with impeccable timing who kept us helplessly laughing into her final days. She also never stopped sharing a vision of a kinder world, grounded in compassion. “You could save the world if you did it one person at a time,” she told us near the end, “Love is the religion, and the universe is the book.”
In her final years, Anne was cared for with great tenderness by her youngest son, Daniel, and her dear friend Kim Notson. These were, she said, among the happiest years of her life. She is preceded in death by her husband, Philip, and leaves behind her three devoted sons, Timothy, Robert, and Daniel, her loving daughters-in-law Mardy and Keiko, her beloved grandchildren Kate, Maeve, Will, Blake, Sophia, and Ian, her nieces Megan, Blair, and Debbie and Caila, her nephews Brian and Chris, her cousin Wren, many kind and faithful neighbors who offered decades of companionship, and countless friends and admirers, including many former students, on whose hearts and lives she left an indelible mark.
“Shield your joyous ones,” advises Saint Augustine. Words cannot express how we love, cherish, and will forever miss her luminous presence.
Arrangements are in the care of Evans Funeral Home. A private celebration of life will be held next spring. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory to the Skagit River Poetry Foundation.