Annis Trout Mccabe

Annis Brittingham Trout McCabe, 79, of Bedford passed away peacefully on Tuesday, August 16, 2011 at her home surrounded by her family. She was born in Richmond, Indiana on July 24, 1932, daughter of the late Robert Lynn Trout and Annis Brittingham Smoot Trout. She grew up in Concord, North Carolina where she began her passionate curiosity for creativity, imagination and the arts.

Her love affair with Dr. William Otey McCabe, Jr. began in the early 1950\"™s. Following their marriage and settlement in Bedford County in 1959, Dr. McCabe established his medical practice which Annis fully supported, simultaneously raising her family and exploring her artistic expressions. Her first passion in life was her family, and she and Dr. McCabe were blessed with five wonderful children who gave them six grandchildren. They shared a love for the natural world and wherever they lived in Bedford County, they kept a small farm which housed an ever-changing menagerie of farm animals and unusual pets.

Her second passion was the innate, relentless, incurable, and sometimes exhausting drive towards creative expression which gripped her entire life. She began this creative journey at the age of five using broken crayons, which warmed and made malleable in her hands, became her first sculpture medium. This drive toward creativity led her to amateur status in the fields of dancing, music, acting and poetry and to professional mastery as an artist and a teacher of the visual arts.

She received her Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and continued graduate work towards serious craftsmanship at Arrowmont School of the Crafts, the Penland School, and Hollins University. She was a faculty member in the art departments of Lynchburg College and Randolph-Macon Woman\"™s College, an educator at The Lynchburg Fine Arts Center, The Sedalia Center and in her own Blue Feather Studio. Since 1989, her creative efforts have been focused on art for liturgical spaces and her commissions appear in numerous Virginia churches.

Ever the visionary, Annis welcomed opportunities available for service to others. This awakened passion number three: education and enhancement of the area\"™s cultural scene. Her longest and most sustained adventure began in 1988 when she and her husband founded the Sedalia Center, Inc. in northern Bedford County. A personal passion of Dr. and Mrs. McCabe, they dedicated the center to the memory of their son, Stuart, who died in 1990. This cultural and educational institution was designed to become a supportive environment for all of the arts and to encourage what Annis described as, "the magical growth that takes place in people when they work or perform in such a setting".

An accomplished artist, Annis completed many commissioned works in various media now owned by private collectors, corporations, educational institutions and churches. She was named the \"2002 Woman of Achievement\" by the Lynchburg Academy of Women. Her annually donated designs for the fund-raising Christmas Cards used by the Society of St. Andrew in Big Island raised untold dollars to feed the hungry.   For over 45 years, she gave art presentations to local schools and clubs. She served as a judge for countless art exhibitions sponsored by civic groups, corporations, and public schools. A particular delight for Annis was the opportunity to work with young children during the years she served as visiting artist in elementary schools in both Virginia and North Carolina.

In addition to her involvement with The Sedalia Center, her exemplary leadership roles included that of co-founder of the Gunstock Creek Natural Food Co-Operative and member of the following: Bedford County School Board, Arts Council of Central Virginia, New London Academy Board of Managers, American Association of University Women, Greater Lynchburg Community Trust, Bedford City-County Museum, The Legacy Project, the African-American Museum, and the Friday Book Club. In keeping with her belief in the importance of stewardship of the land, Annis was an organizer of the Bedford Citizens for Land Preservation. A lifelong Methodist, she was most recently a member of Main Street United Methodist Church, Bedford.

In addition to her parents, Annis was preceded in death by her son, Stuart Lynn McCabe and her husband of 56 years, Dr. William Otey McCabe, Jr.

She is survived by her children, William O. McCabe III and fiancé, Christine Owen, Cornwall, CT; Thomas Trout McCabe, and wife, Doris, Bedford; Virginia Weeks McCabe, and husband, James Towner, Bedford; Sarah McCabe Oakes, and husband, David, McLeansville, NC, and daughter in law, Debra Harvey McCabe of Forest. Her six grandchildren are Dylan James McCabe of Dallas, TX, Lily Ann McCabe, Idyllwild, CA; Jane Claire Bailey Dawkins, and husband, Kelly, Mint Hill, NC; 1st Lt. John McCabe Bailey USMC, William Garrison Oakes, and Rebecca Elizabeth (Liza) Oakes, McLeansville, NC. Also surviving is her brother, Edward Lynn Trout and wife, Judy, brother-in-law, James Weeks McCabe and wife, Shirley, and nieces and nephews, Kimberly McCabe, Matthew McCabe and wife, Carla, David Trout, and wife Laura, and Natt Garland.

A celebration of Annis\"™ life will be conducted at 10:00 am on Friday at the Matthew Brown/Stuart McCabe Walk of Poems on the grounds of the Sedalia Center with the Rev. Ken Burger officiating. Private burial will follow later in the day at Virginia Memorial Park. The family will receive friends from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday at Tharp Funeral Home & Crematory, Bedford.

Those wishing to make memorials are asked to consider the McCabe\"™s enduring passion by making a donation to The Sedalia Center, Inc. 1108 Sedalia School Road, Big Island, VA 24526. Arrangements by Tharp Funeral Home and Crematory, Bedford, 540-586-3443.