Requiem for a Redhead

by Helen Chappell

She was both a lady to her fingertips and a grand old broad. That’s a tightrope not many women can walk, let alone walk with class and style. Her red hair and throaty laugh were known everywhere. My friend and mentor Anne Stinson was larger than life and yet able to pick up the nuances of the smallest things. Her “Nature Notes” columns in the Star Democrat , about her passion for gardening and her love of nature, made every Sunday special for many years. Readers adored her. Her friends adored her even more. She passed from this mortal coil on May 20, and a light went out in this weary world. Yet she leaves a legacy of joy and color and music that will live on, not just through her beloved children and grandchildren, but through her friends.

I was fortunate to be one of those friends, someone she took a liking to and guided on a rocky path through a writer’s world. And the world of life itself. She used