Anna Walaiti

RIPAnna Susan Jane Taber WalaitiSeptember 25, 1947 - June 6, 2017Anna Sue Walaiti (September 25, 1947- June 6, 2017) was born Susan Jane Taber in Northhampton, Massachusetts. Her father, Ed Taber, passed away when she was two years old; her mother, Martha van Hoesen Taber Barnett, passed away in November of 1977. Susan (as she was known then) lived in Baltimore and Chestertown, Maryland, where her mother was a college professor. In 1963, Martha married Irving Barnett, and Susan acquired three younger step-sisters, and, for a time, went by the name Susan Taber Barnett. The combined family spent a year in India 1964-1965, where she attended a local parochial school and studied classical Indian music and dance, and then moved to New Paltz, NY.Susan attended Oberlin College, where she continued her study of music, studied international relations in Minnesota, and then attended law school at the University of San Diego. Her concern for justice influenced her choice to intern with a migrant workers rights organization. During her law studies, she began showing signs of the mental illness that would plague her for the rest of her life. She graduated with a law degree and passed the bar exam in California, Massachusetts, and Ohio, but was unable to launch a career in law. She lived in Maryland, New York, Oregon, New Mexico, Colorado and Montana. Anna was a life-long piano player and at different times played violin, wrote poetry, and painted.She was married to the late Spencer Walaiti (1947-1996), in Albuquerque, NM; the marriage ended in divorce. She gave birth to a boy in Portland, Oregon, on April 12, 1978, who was adopted at birth.Susan changed her name to Anna and lived the last years of her life at the Missouri River Manor Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center in Great Falls, Montana. She died after a brief bout of pneumonia at Benefis Hospital in Great Falls on June 6, 2017, at the age of 69 with two of her step-sisters, Jane and Sarah, by her side.Anna is survived by her stepmother, Kerttu Barnett; step-sisters Elisabeth Barnett, Sarah Ruth van Gelder, and Jane Emily Hylton; brothers-in-law Tim Allanbrook, Roger van Gelder and Cyril Hylton; sister-in-law Dee Axelrod; her cousins Margot Booth, Sally Booth-Schwadron, Richard Booth, Clifford Harding III and Richard Harding; her nieces and nephews Matthew Turino, Cristina Turino, Martha van Gelder, Alex van Gelder, Simone Hylton and Catherine Hylton.She is preceded in death by her father, Ed Taber; mother Martha van Hoesen Taber Barnett; and stepfather Irving Barnett.