Anne Houston Kappelman died peacefully in her sleep on Sunday, July 21, 2019, at age 96. She was born in Wichita, Kansas, to Guy Robert and Helen (Porter) Houston November 14, 1922.
Although she had no memories of the Great Depression, she did remember frequently lying prostrate on the floor at home with wet towels and a fan hoping to cool a bit during the hot Kansas dust bowl summers of her youth! Graduating from high school with the 1941 class of the Chadwick School in California, she subsequently received her BA from Pomona and physical therapy degree from Stanford. While working as a physical therapist at the VA hospital in Wichita, she married Lester Kappelman, which lasted 50 years until his death in 1998. They had two children, Kathryn (“Kate”) now of Philadelphia, PA, and Michael of Vashon, WA. She willingly gave up her PT career to be a great mother and active member of the community.
Anne was raised at a time when women were to be “humble and without false humility,” but in the turbulent 1960s, she started working to see herself as worthy of her own thoughts and values. Perhaps, as a result, she seemed to have an easy connection with young people as they worked through the issues of finding their own identities and by giving them nonjudgmental support. And she demonstrated pluck throughout her life — learning to fly as a young woman, hiking off a Spanish mountain with a broken ankle and traveling to China soon after its opening to the West.
In 2004 Anne moved to Vashon, WA, to be nearer to family, living in her own home until 2010, then at Vashon Community Care assisted living and nursing home, and finally at Theresa Shipley’s Island Elder Care adult family home. All of us in her family are so appreciative of the kind care she received from the aides and nurses she had over the years. She now truly rests in peace.
Anne is survived by her children Kate Churi (Ramesh) and Michael (Nancy), five grandchildren—Anila, Maya and Ariel Churi and Clara and Camille Kappelman—and four great-grandchildren— August and Avery Jones and Robin and Marcel Churi. A private family remembrance was held on July 29th.
