Mrs. Ann Elizabeth Derseweh Caldwell, 79, passed away peacefully on Sunday, August 12, 2012, surrounded by her loving family at home after nearly 30 years of coping with multiple sclerosis.
Ann was born on June 8, 1933, in Nashville, Tennessee, to the late Arthur “Otto” Derseweh and Caroline Smiley Derseweh. Ann Elizabeth (as she was known) attended public schools with her older brother, James Robert. She graduated from East Nashville High School in 1951.
Ann was an accomplished pianist, and during her four years at David Lipscomb College in Nashville, she accompanied dozens of talented performers, including a young Pat Boone. After graduation from Lipscomb, Ann moved to Atlanta in 1955 and began her career teaching elementary school music. While there, she met a Georgia Tech engineering student from Newnan, John F. Caldwell Jr., at Druid Hills Church of Christ on Ponce de Leon Avenue. Ann had to move back to Nashville to help care for her father the next year, and once John graduated from Tech, John and Ann married in Nashville on September 14, 1957, and at the time of her death, they had been married for 55 years.
Soon after their marriage, John was drafted into the Army; Ann gave birth to their son, John III, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1959. They lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for a year when John was transferred to Huntsville, Alabama, where their daughter, Mary Caroline, was born in 1963.
In 1968, the Caldwell family moved to John’s childhood home, Newnan. In 1971, Ann resumed her teaching career as a music teacher in Coweta County Schools. Over the years, she taught thousands of elementary school students and also gave private piano lessons. Ann was blessed with five grandchildren: Joseph, Emily, Aaron, and Ann Moore, and Lauren Caldwell Searcy.
The week after her first grandchild was born in 1986, Ann was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She continued to teach elementary school music into the 1990s, but was forced by the progression of the disease to retire. She delighted in being able to still teach piano to her grandchildren.
In 1995, Ann and her extended family became founding members of the Downtown Church of Christ, which she attended for the rest of her life. Beginning in the 1990s, Ann received state-of-the-art treatment and therapy for her MS at The Shepherd Clinic in Buckhead, making twice weekly trips to Atlanta with her husband, who was her loving caretaker throughout. Ann was an inspiration to all who knew her as she faced her MS and served everyone she met, never failing to smile and impart grace born from her confidence in God’s love. Ann was very active, refusing to allow MS to defeat her. She attended church three times weekly. She was an active member of the East Nashville High Alumni Association until her death, attending all but the most recent reunion. She was also a valued member of the General Daniel Newnan chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).
Ann is survived by her husband, John F. Caldwell Jr. of Newnan, Georgia; her children, John F. Caldwell III, Mary Caroline Moore and her husband, Russ Moore, all of Newnan; grandchildren, Joseph Moore of Orlando, Florida, Emily Moore of Decatur, Georgia, Ann Moore of Newnan and Lauren Caldwell Searcy and her husband, Josh Searcy, of Little Rock, Arkansas. She was preceded in death by her grandson, Aaron, in 1993.
Funeral arrangements are by McKoon Funeral Home at 38 Jackson Street in Newnan. The family held visitation on Tuesday evening between 6 and 8 p.m. The funeral service will be on Wednesday at 11 a.m. in the McKoon Funeral Home chapel. Interment will be at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to The Shepherd Center, 2020 Peachtree Road NW, Atlanta, GA 30309.
Online condolences may be expressed at www.mckoon.com .
McKoon Funeral Home, 770-253-4580
