Ann's Swiss-German immigrant ancestor (Jacob Drafts) arrived in Charleston in 1744 at age 32, and he was scalped and killed at age 47 by the Cherokee Indians in 1760 in present-day Lexington County.
Ann was born in the front bedroom of their home on Augusta highway (#1 Hwy) in the home they lived in at that time across the highway from present-day Lexington High School. She started elementary school at age 4-5. She then finished Newberry College. In 1961, she married Carol Wessinger. She and Carol adopted a baby boy whose biological father was a Greek who was professor in the medical arena at the Medical College of S. C. in Charleston...in something like maybe pharmacology & his wife was sort of a...non-Greek?...beauty queen (former Miss S. C.?) or model. For help around the home, Ann hired a black female "domestic" named Bessie to cook & clean house & help with baby sitting. About 5 years later, they adopted Ginger who...with Carol's help...would (many years later) find & meet her biological mother who had her own family & was willing to meet her (she looked like Ginger's twin) but did not want a relationship.
Ann died suddenly & unexpectedly Sunday evening in front of St. Marks Village in Palm Harbor, Florida as she waited for Klaus to get the car. EMS rushed her to the hospital at Safety Harbor where she was pronounced dead (her pacemaker still functioning).
In the beginning of 1996, Ann was given 6-24 months (cardiologist in St. Petersburg, Fla.) to live as she got a dire medical heart diagnosis (idiopathic cardiomyopathy). The Lutheran Church had husband, Rev. Klaus Koch (son of Franz & Gertrud Koch), retire Feb. 2001.
Ann had been a truly outstanding public school teacher of early grades for over 30 years and had an amazingly positive impact on children of all races, ethnicities, and social classes.
At what would become the end of her teaching career, she got onto a stool to decorate the class bulletin board & fell, breaking both ankles in 1998. The pre-surgical workup discovered a potentially lethal cardiomyopathy (and she was not a heart transplant candidate). With this dire health situation, she and Klaus left their careers in Florida in 2001 and on to retire near family in Lexington County, S. C., in the summer of 2002. Her brother-in-law lined her up with Lexington internist, Dr. Thomas G. Seastrunk & requested expert referral to "the best" Columbia-area cardiologist (Seastrunk's mom & her family were life-long friends of my Shaw family). But, the miracle of technological advancement came unexpectedly onto the scene in 2003. Under the expert care of Dr. Venkateshwar K. Gottipaty of Columbia, S. C., Ann remembered herself as being the first recipient east of the Mississippi River of the new Guidant Technology ICD heart pacemaker (implantable cardioverter-defibrillator). Ann had been referred to Dr. Gottipaty by her Lexington internist, Dr. Thomas G. Seastrunk. She and Klaus were fearless in their travels afterward. Ann & Klaus returned permanently to Florida to a fairly new, graded retirement residence at St. Mark Village, Palm Harbor, in the fall of 2013.
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Photos: Click on the link below the photos on this page to see more photos on another page. Click on each photo to read info about the photo hidden in the caption.
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Ann's mother and father both liked the name, Ann; and her middle name was in memory of her daddy's Aunt Jennie Caughman Harman. Ann, Patti Drafts Love & Eugene Drafts were baptized by Pastor Dasher (pastor of Mt. Hermon Lutheran Church) in the front bedroom of her Drafts home @ 4516 Darby Ambrose Road. At age 4 (when her family lived across Hwy #1 from present-day Lexington High School), she followed two Drafts first cousins (Margaret & H. D. Drafts) who lived with them to Charter Oak School (in Charter Oak Road...see photo) and was so well behaved & wanted so much to learn that the teacher and school allowed her to continue to sit in as she pleased. After graduating Lexington High School (class of 1954) at age 14, she started Lander College for her freshman year where she met Rose Marie Alonzo, a former Cuban beauty queen (a Cuban immigrant who would be a life-long friend). Then she transferred to Newberry College (graduating in the class of 1958) where her roommate was Leah Jacobson from St. Petersburg, Florida (and would also become a life-long friend, later as wife of Rev. Gordon Perry). Ann had some difficulty comprehending some math at Newberry and credits her Lexington classmate, Gene Hendrix (his brothers are Walter & Charley), with tutoring her ("...or, otherwise, I'd have never graduated"). Thereafter, she did some math tutoring for some others at Newberry. She graduated Newberry College at age 17 and was teaching in Pinellas Co., FLA prior to being old enough to buy alcoholic beverages! As a pastor's wife, a family note of interest is that Ann told us while walking through the old home place in 2015 that she, Patti Drafts Love & Eugene Drafts were actually baptized together by Pastor Dasher (Mt. Hermon) in the front bedroom of her Drafts Family home place at 4516 Darby Ambrose Road, Lexington Co., S. C.
Obituary: The info is after the Sylan Abbey Funeral Home, Clearwater, FLA posting: Ann Drafts Koch, 78, died unexpectedly on November 22, 2015. She was born in Lexington, SC. She was a graduate of Lexington High School (class of 1954) in Lexington, S. C. and of Newberry College (class of 1958), Newberry, S. C. She was an elementary school teacher and a speech therapist in Richland and Newberry counties of S. C. and served as an elementary grade teacher in several schools in Pinellas County for about 30 years. She is survived by her husband, Pastor Klaus Oskar Richard Koch, of Palm Harbor; her adopted son, John Wessinger, M. D. (Rebecca) of Roanoke, VA; her step-sons, David Koch (Anita) of Marietta, GA, Charles Koch, of Woodstock, GA, and Taylor Koch (Cindy), of Mooresville, NC; her adopted daughter, Ginger Wessinger, of Ft. Collins, CO; her granddaughter, Laura Slusarchyk, of Clearwater, FL; and six additional grandchildren. She is also survived by her brother, George Marion Drafts (Saundra), of Batesburg, SC; her sisters, Betty Drafts Shaw (Ervin), of Lexington, SC, Brenda Drafts Speer (Kenny), of Leesville, SC, and Trudy Drafts Wales (Mark), of Lexington, SC; numerous nieces and nephews; her brother-in-law, Hellmut Koch; and sister-in-law, Ellen Rendenbach, both of Wuerzburg, Germany. A similar obituary was published in the State newspaper in S. C., issue of 11/29/2015, the Tampa Bay Times on Nov. 29, 2015, and the 12/3/2015 issue of The Lexington County Chronicle, page A10.
A funeral service was held on Dec. 4th at 2:30PM in the chapel at St. Mark Village, Palm Harbor, FLA. Pastor Curt B. Snare presided. She was embalmed for family viewing. Son, John accompanied (with guitar) his daughter, Lindler, who sang. Granddaughter Laura Slusarchyk also sang a solo. Pastor Snare allowed attendees who wished to do so to give testimonies of Ann's impact on their lives. Ann's youngest sister, Trudy, gave a comprehensives testimony from the immediate family, Ann having been the senior sibling and Trudy the youngest. The service was attended by about 100 folks.
After the family viewing & the funeral service, Anne was cremated. A grave site cremains committal service was held on Dec. 15th (a Tuesday) at 2PM in Lexington, S. C. at St. Peter's Lutheran Church, a beautiful, sunny day. An estimated 150 people attended.
Memorials: As to any memorials, Klaus has suggested two (in addition to the church of her childhood & the retirement time in S. C., Zion Lutheran Church) that were dear to Ann...especially recently:
"Newberry College": 2100 College Street, Newberry, S. C. 29108
"St. Mark Village Continuing Care Fund" [a fund for those St. Mark residents whose money might run out before death], 2655 Nebraska Ave., Palm Harbor, Florida 34684
Friends:
Among Ann's many friends was Ethel Hagerman who was an amateur artist and also an adoptive parent. Ann also had significant admiration for the grandmother of her stepsons, Linda Taylor Clark. Her high school classmate & wife of 58 years of Rev. Bob Addy was Annie Ruth Addy.
Ann was born in the front bedroom of their home on Augusta highway (#1 Hwy) in the home they lived in at that time across the highway from present-day Lexington High School. She started elementary school at age 4-5. She then finished Newberry College. In 1961, she married Carol Wessinger. She and Carol adopted a baby boy whose biological father was a Greek who was professor in the medical arena at the Medical College of S. C. in Charleston...in something like maybe pharmacology & his wife was sort of a...non-Greek?...beauty queen (former Miss S. C.?) or model. For help around the home, Ann hired a black female "domestic" named Bessie to cook & clean house & help with baby sitting. About 5 years later, they adopted Ginger who...with Carol's help...would (many years later) find & meet her biological mother who had her own family & was willing to meet her (she looked like Ginger's twin) but did not want a relationship.
Ann died suddenly & unexpectedly Sunday evening in front of St. Marks Village in Palm Harbor, Florida as she waited for Klaus to get the car. EMS rushed her to the hospital at Safety Harbor where she was pronounced dead (her pacemaker still functioning).
In the beginning of 1996, Ann was given 6-24 months (cardiologist in St. Petersburg, Fla.) to live as she got a dire medical heart diagnosis (idiopathic cardiomyopathy). The Lutheran Church had husband, Rev. Klaus Koch (son of Franz & Gertrud Koch), retire Feb. 2001.
Ann had been a truly outstanding public school teacher of early grades for over 30 years and had an amazingly positive impact on children of all races, ethnicities, and social classes.
At what would become the end of her teaching career, she got onto a stool to decorate the class bulletin board & fell, breaking both ankles in 1998. The pre-surgical workup discovered a potentially lethal cardiomyopathy (and she was not a heart transplant candidate). With this dire health situation, she and Klaus left their careers in Florida in 2001 and on to retire near family in Lexington County, S. C., in the summer of 2002. Her brother-in-law lined her up with Lexington internist, Dr. Thomas G. Seastrunk & requested expert referral to "the best" Columbia-area cardiologist (Seastrunk's mom & her family were life-long friends of my Shaw family). But, the miracle of technological advancement came unexpectedly onto the scene in 2003. Under the expert care of Dr. Venkateshwar K. Gottipaty of Columbia, S. C., Ann remembered herself as being the first recipient east of the Mississippi River of the new Guidant Technology ICD heart pacemaker (implantable cardioverter-defibrillator). Ann had been referred to Dr. Gottipaty by her Lexington internist, Dr. Thomas G. Seastrunk. She and Klaus were fearless in their travels afterward. Ann & Klaus returned permanently to Florida to a fairly new, graded retirement residence at St. Mark Village, Palm Harbor, in the fall of 2013.
**********
Photos: Click on the link below the photos on this page to see more photos on another page. Click on each photo to read info about the photo hidden in the caption.
**********
Ann's mother and father both liked the name, Ann; and her middle name was in memory of her daddy's Aunt Jennie Caughman Harman. Ann, Patti Drafts Love & Eugene Drafts were baptized by Pastor Dasher (pastor of Mt. Hermon Lutheran Church) in the front bedroom of her Drafts home @ 4516 Darby Ambrose Road. At age 4 (when her family lived across Hwy #1 from present-day Lexington High School), she followed two Drafts first cousins (Margaret & H. D. Drafts) who lived with them to Charter Oak School (in Charter Oak Road...see photo) and was so well behaved & wanted so much to learn that the teacher and school allowed her to continue to sit in as she pleased. After graduating Lexington High School (class of 1954) at age 14, she started Lander College for her freshman year where she met Rose Marie Alonzo, a former Cuban beauty queen (a Cuban immigrant who would be a life-long friend). Then she transferred to Newberry College (graduating in the class of 1958) where her roommate was Leah Jacobson from St. Petersburg, Florida (and would also become a life-long friend, later as wife of Rev. Gordon Perry). Ann had some difficulty comprehending some math at Newberry and credits her Lexington classmate, Gene Hendrix (his brothers are Walter & Charley), with tutoring her ("...or, otherwise, I'd have never graduated"). Thereafter, she did some math tutoring for some others at Newberry. She graduated Newberry College at age 17 and was teaching in Pinellas Co., FLA prior to being old enough to buy alcoholic beverages! As a pastor's wife, a family note of interest is that Ann told us while walking through the old home place in 2015 that she, Patti Drafts Love & Eugene Drafts were actually baptized together by Pastor Dasher (Mt. Hermon) in the front bedroom of her Drafts Family home place at 4516 Darby Ambrose Road, Lexington Co., S. C.
Obituary: The info is after the Sylan Abbey Funeral Home, Clearwater, FLA posting: Ann Drafts Koch, 78, died unexpectedly on November 22, 2015. She was born in Lexington, SC. She was a graduate of Lexington High School (class of 1954) in Lexington, S. C. and of Newberry College (class of 1958), Newberry, S. C. She was an elementary school teacher and a speech therapist in Richland and Newberry counties of S. C. and served as an elementary grade teacher in several schools in Pinellas County for about 30 years. She is survived by her husband, Pastor Klaus Oskar Richard Koch, of Palm Harbor; her adopted son, John Wessinger, M. D. (Rebecca) of Roanoke, VA; her step-sons, David Koch (Anita) of Marietta, GA, Charles Koch, of Woodstock, GA, and Taylor Koch (Cindy), of Mooresville, NC; her adopted daughter, Ginger Wessinger, of Ft. Collins, CO; her granddaughter, Laura Slusarchyk, of Clearwater, FL; and six additional grandchildren. She is also survived by her brother, George Marion Drafts (Saundra), of Batesburg, SC; her sisters, Betty Drafts Shaw (Ervin), of Lexington, SC, Brenda Drafts Speer (Kenny), of Leesville, SC, and Trudy Drafts Wales (Mark), of Lexington, SC; numerous nieces and nephews; her brother-in-law, Hellmut Koch; and sister-in-law, Ellen Rendenbach, both of Wuerzburg, Germany. A similar obituary was published in the State newspaper in S. C., issue of 11/29/2015, the Tampa Bay Times on Nov. 29, 2015, and the 12/3/2015 issue of The Lexington County Chronicle, page A10.
A funeral service was held on Dec. 4th at 2:30PM in the chapel at St. Mark Village, Palm Harbor, FLA. Pastor Curt B. Snare presided. She was embalmed for family viewing. Son, John accompanied (with guitar) his daughter, Lindler, who sang. Granddaughter Laura Slusarchyk also sang a solo. Pastor Snare allowed attendees who wished to do so to give testimonies of Ann's impact on their lives. Ann's youngest sister, Trudy, gave a comprehensives testimony from the immediate family, Ann having been the senior sibling and Trudy the youngest. The service was attended by about 100 folks.
After the family viewing & the funeral service, Anne was cremated. A grave site cremains committal service was held on Dec. 15th (a Tuesday) at 2PM in Lexington, S. C. at St. Peter's Lutheran Church, a beautiful, sunny day. An estimated 150 people attended.
Memorials: As to any memorials, Klaus has suggested two (in addition to the church of her childhood & the retirement time in S. C., Zion Lutheran Church) that were dear to Ann...especially recently:
"Newberry College": 2100 College Street, Newberry, S. C. 29108
"St. Mark Village Continuing Care Fund" [a fund for those St. Mark residents whose money might run out before death], 2655 Nebraska Ave., Palm Harbor, Florida 34684
Friends:
Among Ann's many friends was Ethel Hagerman who was an amateur artist and also an adoptive parent. Ann also had significant admiration for the grandmother of her stepsons, Linda Taylor Clark. Her high school classmate & wife of 58 years of Rev. Bob Addy was Annie Ruth Addy.
Ann's Swiss-German immigrant ancestor (Jacob Drafts) arrived in Charleston in 1744 at age 32, and he was scalped and killed at age 47 by the Cherokee Indians in 1760 in present-day Lexington County.
Ann was born in the front bedroom of their home on Augusta highway (#1 Hwy) in the home they lived in at that time across the highway from present-day Lexington High School. She started elementary school at age 4-5. She then finished Newberry College. In 1961, she married Carol Wessinger. She and Carol adopted a baby boy whose biological father was a Greek who was professor in the medical arena at the Medical College of S. C. in Charleston...in something like maybe pharmacology & his wife was sort of a...non-Greek?...beauty queen (former Miss S. C.?) or model. For help around the home, Ann hired a black female "domestic" named Bessie to cook & clean house & help with baby sitting. About 5 years later, they adopted Ginger who...with Carol's help...would (many years later) find & meet her biological mother who had her own family & was willing to meet her (she looked like Ginger's twin) but did not want a relationship.
Ann died suddenly & unexpectedly Sunday evening in front of St. Marks Village in Palm Harbor, Florida as she waited for Klaus to get the car. EMS rushed her to the hospital at Safety Harbor where she was pronounced dead (her pacemaker still functioning).
In the beginning of 1996, Ann was given 6-24 months (cardiologist in St. Petersburg, Fla.) to live as she got a dire medical heart diagnosis (idiopathic cardiomyopathy). The Lutheran Church had husband, Rev. Klaus Koch (son of Franz & Gertrud Koch), retire Feb. 2001.
Ann had been a truly outstanding public school teacher of early grades for over 30 years and had an amazingly positive impact on children of all races, ethnicities, and social classes.
At what would become the end of her teaching career, she got onto a stool to decorate the class bulletin board & fell, breaking both ankles in 1998. The pre-surgical workup discovered a potentially lethal cardiomyopathy (and she was not a heart transplant candidate). With this dire health situation, she and Klaus left their careers in Florida in 2001 and on to retire near family in Lexington County, S. C., in the summer of 2002. Her brother-in-law lined her up with Lexington internist, Dr. Thomas G. Seastrunk & requested expert referral to "the best" Columbia-area cardiologist (Seastrunk's mom & her family were life-long friends of my Shaw family). But, the miracle of technological advancement came unexpectedly onto the scene in 2003. Under the expert care of Dr. Venkateshwar K. Gottipaty of Columbia, S. C., Ann remembered herself as being the first recipient east of the Mississippi River of the new Guidant Technology ICD heart pacemaker (implantable cardioverter-defibrillator). Ann had been referred to Dr. Gottipaty by her Lexington internist, Dr. Thomas G. Seastrunk. She and Klaus were fearless in their travels afterward. Ann & Klaus returned permanently to Florida to a fairly new, graded retirement residence at St. Mark Village, Palm Harbor, in the fall of 2013.
**********
Photos: Click on the link below the photos on this page to see more photos on another page. Click on each photo to read info about the photo hidden in the caption.
**********
Ann's mother and father both liked the name, Ann; and her middle name was in memory of her daddy's Aunt Jennie Caughman Harman. Ann, Patti Drafts Love & Eugene Drafts were baptized by Pastor Dasher (pastor of Mt. Hermon Lutheran Church) in the front bedroom of her Drafts home @ 4516 Darby Ambrose Road. At age 4 (when her family lived across Hwy #1 from present-day Lexington High School), she followed two Drafts first cousins (Margaret & H. D. Drafts) who lived with them to Charter Oak School (in Charter Oak Road...see photo) and was so well behaved & wanted so much to learn that the teacher and school allowed her to continue to sit in as she pleased. After graduating Lexington High School (class of 1954) at age 14, she started Lander College for her freshman year where she met Rose Marie Alonzo, a former Cuban beauty queen (a Cuban immigrant who would be a life-long friend). Then she transferred to Newberry College (graduating in the class of 1958) where her roommate was Leah Jacobson from St. Petersburg, Florida (and would also become a life-long friend, later as wife of Rev. Gordon Perry). Ann had some difficulty comprehending some math at Newberry and credits her Lexington classmate, Gene Hendrix (his brothers are Walter & Charley), with tutoring her ("...or, otherwise, I'd have never graduated"). Thereafter, she did some math tutoring for some others at Newberry. She graduated Newberry College at age 17 and was teaching in Pinellas Co., FLA prior to being old enough to buy alcoholic beverages! As a pastor's wife, a family note of interest is that Ann told us while walking through the old home place in 2015 that she, Patti Drafts Love & Eugene Drafts were actually baptized together by Pastor Dasher (Mt. Hermon) in the front bedroom of her Drafts Family home place at 4516 Darby Ambrose Road, Lexington Co., S. C.
Obituary: The info is after the Sylan Abbey Funeral Home, Clearwater, FLA posting: Ann Drafts Koch, 78, died unexpectedly on November 22, 2015. She was born in Lexington, SC. She was a graduate of Lexington High School (class of 1954) in Lexington, S. C. and of Newberry College (class of 1958), Newberry, S. C. She was an elementary school teacher and a speech therapist in Richland and Newberry counties of S. C. and served as an elementary grade teacher in several schools in Pinellas County for about 30 years. She is survived by her husband, Pastor Klaus Oskar Richard Koch, of Palm Harbor; her adopted son, John Wessinger, M. D. (Rebecca) of Roanoke, VA; her step-sons, David Koch (Anita) of Marietta, GA, Charles Koch, of Woodstock, GA, and Taylor Koch (Cindy), of Mooresville, NC; her adopted daughter, Ginger Wessinger, of Ft. Collins, CO; her granddaughter, Laura Slusarchyk, of Clearwater, FL; and six additional grandchildren. She is also survived by her brother, George Marion Drafts (Saundra), of Batesburg, SC; her sisters, Betty Drafts Shaw (Ervin), of Lexington, SC, Brenda Drafts Speer (Kenny), of Leesville, SC, and Trudy Drafts Wales (Mark), of Lexington, SC; numerous nieces and nephews; her brother-in-law, Hellmut Koch; and sister-in-law, Ellen Rendenbach, both of Wuerzburg, Germany. A similar obituary was published in the State newspaper in S. C., issue of 11/29/2015, the Tampa Bay Times on Nov. 29, 2015, and the 12/3/2015 issue of The Lexington County Chronicle, page A10.
A funeral service was held on Dec. 4th at 2:30PM in the chapel at St. Mark Village, Palm Harbor, FLA. Pastor Curt B. Snare presided. She was embalmed for family viewing. Son, John accompanied (with guitar) his daughter, Lindler, who sang. Granddaughter Laura Slusarchyk also sang a solo. Pastor Snare allowed attendees who wished to do so to give testimonies of Ann's impact on their lives. Ann's youngest sister, Trudy, gave a comprehensives testimony from the immediate family, Ann having been the senior sibling and Trudy the youngest. The service was attended by about 100 folks.
After the family viewing & the funeral service, Anne was cremated. A grave site cremains committal service was held on Dec. 15th (a Tuesday) at 2PM in Lexington, S. C. at St. Peter's Lutheran Church, a beautiful, sunny day. An estimated 150 people attended.
Memorials: As to any memorials, Klaus has suggested two (in addition to the church of her childhood & the retirement time in S. C., Zion Lutheran Church) that were dear to Ann...especially recently:
"Newberry College": 2100 College Street, Newberry, S. C. 29108
"St. Mark Village Continuing Care Fund" [a fund for those St. Mark residents whose money might run out before death], 2655 Nebraska Ave., Palm Harbor, Florida 34684
Friends:
Among Ann's many friends was Ethel Hagerman who was an amateur artist and also an adoptive parent. Ann also had significant admiration for the grandmother of her stepsons, Linda Taylor Clark. Her high school classmate & wife of 58 years of Rev. Bob Addy was Annie Ruth Addy.
Ann was born in the front bedroom of their home on Augusta highway (#1 Hwy) in the home they lived in at that time across the highway from present-day Lexington High School. She started elementary school at age 4-5. She then finished Newberry College. In 1961, she married Carol Wessinger. She and Carol adopted a baby boy whose biological father was a Greek who was professor in the medical arena at the Medical College of S. C. in Charleston...in something like maybe pharmacology & his wife was sort of a...non-Greek?...beauty queen (former Miss S. C.?) or model. For help around the home, Ann hired a black female "domestic" named Bessie to cook & clean house & help with baby sitting. About 5 years later, they adopted Ginger who...with Carol's help...would (many years later) find & meet her biological mother who had her own family & was willing to meet her (she looked like Ginger's twin) but did not want a relationship.
Ann died suddenly & unexpectedly Sunday evening in front of St. Marks Village in Palm Harbor, Florida as she waited for Klaus to get the car. EMS rushed her to the hospital at Safety Harbor where she was pronounced dead (her pacemaker still functioning).
In the beginning of 1996, Ann was given 6-24 months (cardiologist in St. Petersburg, Fla.) to live as she got a dire medical heart diagnosis (idiopathic cardiomyopathy). The Lutheran Church had husband, Rev. Klaus Koch (son of Franz & Gertrud Koch), retire Feb. 2001.
Ann had been a truly outstanding public school teacher of early grades for over 30 years and had an amazingly positive impact on children of all races, ethnicities, and social classes.
At what would become the end of her teaching career, she got onto a stool to decorate the class bulletin board & fell, breaking both ankles in 1998. The pre-surgical workup discovered a potentially lethal cardiomyopathy (and she was not a heart transplant candidate). With this dire health situation, she and Klaus left their careers in Florida in 2001 and on to retire near family in Lexington County, S. C., in the summer of 2002. Her brother-in-law lined her up with Lexington internist, Dr. Thomas G. Seastrunk & requested expert referral to "the best" Columbia-area cardiologist (Seastrunk's mom & her family were life-long friends of my Shaw family). But, the miracle of technological advancement came unexpectedly onto the scene in 2003. Under the expert care of Dr. Venkateshwar K. Gottipaty of Columbia, S. C., Ann remembered herself as being the first recipient east of the Mississippi River of the new Guidant Technology ICD heart pacemaker (implantable cardioverter-defibrillator). Ann had been referred to Dr. Gottipaty by her Lexington internist, Dr. Thomas G. Seastrunk. She and Klaus were fearless in their travels afterward. Ann & Klaus returned permanently to Florida to a fairly new, graded retirement residence at St. Mark Village, Palm Harbor, in the fall of 2013.
**********
Photos: Click on the link below the photos on this page to see more photos on another page. Click on each photo to read info about the photo hidden in the caption.
**********
Ann's mother and father both liked the name, Ann; and her middle name was in memory of her daddy's Aunt Jennie Caughman Harman. Ann, Patti Drafts Love & Eugene Drafts were baptized by Pastor Dasher (pastor of Mt. Hermon Lutheran Church) in the front bedroom of her Drafts home @ 4516 Darby Ambrose Road. At age 4 (when her family lived across Hwy #1 from present-day Lexington High School), she followed two Drafts first cousins (Margaret & H. D. Drafts) who lived with them to Charter Oak School (in Charter Oak Road...see photo) and was so well behaved & wanted so much to learn that the teacher and school allowed her to continue to sit in as she pleased. After graduating Lexington High School (class of 1954) at age 14, she started Lander College for her freshman year where she met Rose Marie Alonzo, a former Cuban beauty queen (a Cuban immigrant who would be a life-long friend). Then she transferred to Newberry College (graduating in the class of 1958) where her roommate was Leah Jacobson from St. Petersburg, Florida (and would also become a life-long friend, later as wife of Rev. Gordon Perry). Ann had some difficulty comprehending some math at Newberry and credits her Lexington classmate, Gene Hendrix (his brothers are Walter & Charley), with tutoring her ("...or, otherwise, I'd have never graduated"). Thereafter, she did some math tutoring for some others at Newberry. She graduated Newberry College at age 17 and was teaching in Pinellas Co., FLA prior to being old enough to buy alcoholic beverages! As a pastor's wife, a family note of interest is that Ann told us while walking through the old home place in 2015 that she, Patti Drafts Love & Eugene Drafts were actually baptized together by Pastor Dasher (Mt. Hermon) in the front bedroom of her Drafts Family home place at 4516 Darby Ambrose Road, Lexington Co., S. C.
Obituary: The info is after the Sylan Abbey Funeral Home, Clearwater, FLA posting: Ann Drafts Koch, 78, died unexpectedly on November 22, 2015. She was born in Lexington, SC. She was a graduate of Lexington High School (class of 1954) in Lexington, S. C. and of Newberry College (class of 1958), Newberry, S. C. She was an elementary school teacher and a speech therapist in Richland and Newberry counties of S. C. and served as an elementary grade teacher in several schools in Pinellas County for about 30 years. She is survived by her husband, Pastor Klaus Oskar Richard Koch, of Palm Harbor; her adopted son, John Wessinger, M. D. (Rebecca) of Roanoke, VA; her step-sons, David Koch (Anita) of Marietta, GA, Charles Koch, of Woodstock, GA, and Taylor Koch (Cindy), of Mooresville, NC; her adopted daughter, Ginger Wessinger, of Ft. Collins, CO; her granddaughter, Laura Slusarchyk, of Clearwater, FL; and six additional grandchildren. She is also survived by her brother, George Marion Drafts (Saundra), of Batesburg, SC; her sisters, Betty Drafts Shaw (Ervin), of Lexington, SC, Brenda Drafts Speer (Kenny), of Leesville, SC, and Trudy Drafts Wales (Mark), of Lexington, SC; numerous nieces and nephews; her brother-in-law, Hellmut Koch; and sister-in-law, Ellen Rendenbach, both of Wuerzburg, Germany. A similar obituary was published in the State newspaper in S. C., issue of 11/29/2015, the Tampa Bay Times on Nov. 29, 2015, and the 12/3/2015 issue of The Lexington County Chronicle, page A10.
A funeral service was held on Dec. 4th at 2:30PM in the chapel at St. Mark Village, Palm Harbor, FLA. Pastor Curt B. Snare presided. She was embalmed for family viewing. Son, John accompanied (with guitar) his daughter, Lindler, who sang. Granddaughter Laura Slusarchyk also sang a solo. Pastor Snare allowed attendees who wished to do so to give testimonies of Ann's impact on their lives. Ann's youngest sister, Trudy, gave a comprehensives testimony from the immediate family, Ann having been the senior sibling and Trudy the youngest. The service was attended by about 100 folks.
After the family viewing & the funeral service, Anne was cremated. A grave site cremains committal service was held on Dec. 15th (a Tuesday) at 2PM in Lexington, S. C. at St. Peter's Lutheran Church, a beautiful, sunny day. An estimated 150 people attended.
Memorials: As to any memorials, Klaus has suggested two (in addition to the church of her childhood & the retirement time in S. C., Zion Lutheran Church) that were dear to Ann...especially recently:
"Newberry College": 2100 College Street, Newberry, S. C. 29108
"St. Mark Village Continuing Care Fund" [a fund for those St. Mark residents whose money might run out before death], 2655 Nebraska Ave., Palm Harbor, Florida 34684
Friends:
Among Ann's many friends was Ethel Hagerman who was an amateur artist and also an adoptive parent. Ann also had significant admiration for the grandmother of her stepsons, Linda Taylor Clark. Her high school classmate & wife of 58 years of Rev. Bob Addy was Annie Ruth Addy.
Gravesite Details
surrounded by coping and ground surface has crushed stone covering.
