Claudia Ann Coleman

Claudia Ann Littlefield Coleman – October 11, 1935 – October 16, 2021

Casting all her cares upon Him knowing He cared for her, Claudia Ann Littlefield Coleman
lived out the promise of this favorite Bible verse, I Peter 5:7, and went to be with her
Creator on Saturday, October 16. Ann Coleman, age 86, is survived by her husband of 67
years, Robert Coleman of Cincinnati, Ohio. In addition, she leaves her children Carol
Vaughn and husband John, Neil Coleman and wife Chris, Brooks Coleman, and Kyle
Coleman; grandchildren Craig Coleman and wife Arlantian, Rob Coleman, Katie Hahn and
husband Dave, Taylor Graham, Eric Coleman, Drew Graham, Savannah Cagel and husband
Robby, Danny Coleman, Austin Coleman, and Parker Coleman; and nine great-
grandchildren: Silver Coleman, Emily Graham, Avery Graham, Axel Coleman, Elliot
Graham, Isabel Hahn, Iris Hahn, Taylor Cagel, and Cole Cagel.

Ann was born in the house her father built to Elmo and Annabelle Littlefield of Fletcher,
Oklahoma, on October 11, 1935. She was preceded in death by her parents and her sisters
Lurland Raibourn and Athlea Strickland, and brother Lloyd Littlefield.

The memorial service will occur on Friday, October 29, at 11 am at the First Baptist Church
of Anderson Hills at 1674 Eight Mile Road, Cincinnati, Ohio, with the Reverend Dr. John C.
Vaughn officiating. The family will greet friends between 10 and 11 am.

Ann made her mark while growing up in Fletcher, Oklahoma. She was awarded a
scholarship to attend the Oklahoma Music Educators’ Camp to receive vocal training.
During her senior year she was cast as the lead in the senior class production Old Virginny
and often entertained her family with her famous line, “I’d prefuh you not speak of the
past—I nevuh like to think of things so dead and fahgone….” Ann graduated from Fletcher
High School in Fletcher, Oklahoma, in 1952.

While on a graduation trip to visit her sister in Washington, DC, she had a chance encounter
with the man who would become her husband. Recently she reflected that both Ann and
Bob were out of place in the most unlikely of meetings—he from Globe, Arizona, and she
from a little town in Oklahoma. Yet on the front steps at the Metropolitan Baptist Church of
Washington DC, they met for the first time and because of her emergency appendectomy,
their relationship had a chance to blossom. A few weeks later, they fell in love while catching
fireflies in her sister’s backyard and a first date followed which included paddle boating on
the Potomac River. Months later, while waiting for her fiancé to return to port, Ann lived in
a women’s boarding house in Norman, Oklahoma, with her best friend from high school,
Pauline, and attended business school in Oklahoma City.

During their married life, Ann followed Bob across 8 states and decorated love-filled homes
in over 25 residences. She set up housekeeping first in Portsmouth, VA, followed by
Jacksonville, FL; then they moved back to Norman, OK, as a family of 3. After Bob’s
graduation from the University of Oklahoma and with the family complete, they moved to
Accokeek then Indian Head, MD; to Las Cruces, NM; McGregor, TX; Las Vegas, NV;
Euless, TX; Grand Prairie, TX, then back again to Norman, OK, to continue Bob’s studies.
Later, they moved to Seabrook, TX. Then began the seemingly never-ending loop between
Ohio and Texas: moving to the township of Terrace Park in Ohio; back to Seabrook and
Clear Lake, TX; then returning to live in the townships of Batavia and Mariemont, Ohio;
back again to Seabrook, and then to Crowley, TX; returning to Ohio to live in Mariemont;
back to Seabrook, TX; and—at last able to watch so many of her grandchildren and great
grandchildren grow up—firmly planting a stake in Ohio to make homes in Blanchester,
Newtown, Williamsburg, and her final home in Anderson Township. Of course, Ann
credits herself for her copious catalogue of residences with the comment that she had
“wanderlust” and would often propose, “Bob, why don’t you send your resume to…?”

Ann Coleman’s gifts were many: she had an eye for the elegant beauty in a discarded piece of
antique china or a crocheted baby’s slipper—and brought together an assorted collection of
family artifacts to create a home filled with warmth and the heritage of her childhood
memories. Her homes were always surrounded with flowers and she found a way to bring
them inside, either in full bloom or preserved in her own handmade bouquet of potpourri.

Expressing her creativity through song was a vital part of Ann’s entire life. As a teenager,
Ann displayed remarkable gifts for one so young. She was the accompanist for both her high
school chorus as well as the adult choir and played the piano for countless worship and
revival services at First Baptist Fletcher. She also had a lyrical soprano voice and was soloist
for her high school chorus and the adult church choir. Throughout her adult life she
continued to be active musically in all the churches she attended. Years later, the height of
her vocal performances occurred while attending First Baptist Church in McGregor, TX,
where she performed the two soprano arias in Handel’s Messiah.

Writing material for church play productions, Ann first developed her dramatic voice with
the monologue of a Mother tracing the ways she hoped to influence in her children and
grandchildren a belief in God. Later she collaborated with a young musician to write a
musical that would pay homage to his grandmother, a missionary to Appalachia. While living
in Norman as Bob pursued graduate school, Ann explored her directing gifts in several
church performances. Among the plays she produced and directed were Christ in the Concrete
City; Peace is an Olive Color (where she had the pleasure of directing her youngest son), and
various Christmas and Easter pageants. At the request of her pastor, Ann directed the
Pulitzer Prize winning play JB by Archibald MacLeish about a modern day Job. Ann cast the
lead role of JB with a local university actor, Ed Harris. To Ann’s delight, she followed Ed
throughout his career and even had the opportunity to renew their friendship while Ed was
in production of the movie Places in the Heart, on location in Waxahachie, Texas. Later when
Ann was a member at the First Baptist Church in Houston, she had the opportunity to direct
Jeannette Clift in a Christmas pageant. Clift had been the actor playing the role of Corrie
Ten Boom in the movie The Hiding Place.

The culmination of the richness of Ann Coleman’s gifts is nowhere more evident than in her
life’s chief accomplishment, The Leaves of Chestnut Ridge. Her love of history, the glory of
research, the thrill of surrounding herself with innumerable volumes in the courthouse and
the library, the intoxicating act of highlighting and paper-clipping the details of those
colonial times in Maryland, and an intuitive eye for lifting just the right detail to breathe life
into the setting of her story, compelled her to compose this 427 page labor of love and to
bring to life the spirits of William and Rebeckah Littlefield and Rachel Lee from so many
years ago.

Even into the final decade of her life, Ann Coleman continued to be a creative producer.
Prior to the pandemic, for nine years Ann and Bob delighted family and friends by playing
piano solos and duets for offertory music and taking turns accompanying the congregation
in worship songs at the Edenton Methodist Church in Edenton, Ohio. Ann continued to
research with exuberance the pioneer spirit of the next generation of the Littlefield family.
However, she never began writing the sequel to The Leaves of Chestnut Ridge. Her creative life
is celebrated today by so many children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. And as she
challenges at the end of her acknowledgments to her beloved book, “From the past to the
future” —perhaps one of them will pick up where she left off?