Anna Brown Taugher

Anna Brown Taugher, age 101 years old, died on June 17, 2020 at her home in Ketchum, ID. Ann was born on October 6, 1918 in Philadelphia, PA to Anna Remington Bradley and William Summers Bradley. She was raised in La Jolla, CA. She attended the University of California at Berkley where she met her husband, James Alexander Brown. They married in 1938 and were blessed with four children (David Brown, Patricia Jorgensen, Victoria Rosenberg, and Katherine Stewart), five grandchildren (Stephen Brown, Jimmy Jorgensen, Heidi Kaminski, Annie Gilligan, and Jeffrey Stewart) and nine great grandchildren (Bradley, Natalie, Jonathan, Christopher, Scotty, Drew, Annie, Matthew, and Ethan). She was widowed in 1974 at the age of 56 years and embarked on a new journey that included watercolor painting and traveling the world. She met her second husband, Donald Taugher, from Monterey, CA on a painting trip in Switzerland. Ann and Don married in 1987 and lived in Monterey until Don died in 2010. She then moved to Ketchum to be with her oldest daughter, Pat, a long-time resident.
Ann was grateful for her family, friends, faith, and a beautiful home built by her grandson, Jimmy Jorgensen, on her daughter’s (Pat Jorgensen) property in Ketchum. A teacher at heart, Ann’s creativity and love of art led her to teach watercolor painting in the Wood River Valley until she was in her mid 90’s. She often told the story of her 3rd grade teacher saying, “You can’t draw a straight line with a ruler!” Proving her teacher wrong, Ann became an accomplished artist, showing her paintings in some galleries in Monterey. Her athleticism allowed her to play tennis until her late 80’s. Always up for an adventure, she traveled the world. On her 90th birthday her whole family gathered in Ketchum to grant her wish to float down the Salmon River in Stanley, ID. As she was lifted into the river raft, she joked, “I’m being launched like the Queen Mary!” As a life long Episcopalian, her faith was strong. She was proud to serve in five different churches over the past seven decades, including St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Ketchum.
As a proud mother of four children, she never gave up her role as the matriarch of the family. At her 100th birthday party, she reflected on her life saying, “I always wanted a big family. I feel so blessed with the birth of each baby over three generations.” She stayed in touch with all of her extended family, giving them gifts, cards, phone calls and, most of all, her love. One of her best friends was her son-in-law, Gordon Rosenberg, with whom she shared many bad jokes. Since the importance of family was woven into the fabric of her life, she always asked people she met if they had children, wanting details on how old they were and what interests they had.
A memorial page with more details can be found at woodriverchapel.com where you can share messages, photos and stories of Ann. The family hopes to plan a Celebration of Life in late summer at St. Thomas Episcopal Church. In lieu of flowers, Ann requested that donations be made in her name to:


St. Thomas Episcopal Church (stthomassv.org)
P.O. Box 1070, Sun Valley, ID 83353

Hospice of Wood River Valley (hpcwrv.org)
P.O. Box 4320
Ketchum, ID 83340

The Community Library (comlib.org)
P.O. Box 2168
Ketchum, ID 83340