Ann Arnof Fishman passed away on April 30, 2024. She leaves a son (John Y. Fishman), two nieces (Paige Arnof-Fenn, Lindy Ann Arnof Kearns), a nephew (Ian N. Arnof), three great nieces (Kaley Arnof, Eleanore Kearns, Keevan Kearns), and a great nephew (Sander Kearns).
Ann graduated as valedictorian from the high school in McCrory, Arkansas. She received her B.A. from Newcomb College in New Orleans. She also attended Tulane, Harvard, and Loyola universities. At Newcomb, she served as senior class president, and as president of the Alpha Epsilon Phi sorority. After college, Ann taught French at Isidore Newman School in New Orleans, the city where she spent most of her adult life.
In her professional career, Ann received four U.S. Senate Fellowships to study generational trends. Her ideas and research resulted in the Senate information paper Lifelong Learning for an Aging Society, Federal legislation that created the National Mentor Corps, and a national workshop on intergenerational mentoring. In 2015, she authored the book Marketing to the Millennial Woman. She also served on the Newcomb Alumnae Board, and on the Raoul Wallenberg Committee for the United States.
Ann always said, however, that her best moments were as a mom.
Personal and professional travels took her to six continents. Her favorite destination was France. She traveled Thanksgivings to Paris with her son, and summers to Nice to attend language school. She loved to learn. She was fluent in French and spoke some Russian as well.
Ann faced adversity with courage and optimism. She never stopped loving and giving. She had a wonderful sense of humor and a smile that could light up the room. She loved all her family and friends so very much.
Her posthumous journey brought her back to her hometown of McCrory, Arkansas, on a drive past the house where she grew up, en route to the Temple Israel Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee, where she was laid to rest on May 5, 2024.
If you wish to make a memorial donation, she requested that you send it to a charity that supports American military personnel, or to one of your choosing.
“I can only give you things, but if I had the choice to give you worldly goods or character, I would give you character. To me, character means loyalty, integrity, ability, sportsmanship, and a sense of humor.” — I.N. Arnof, father of Ann Arnof Fishman
Arrangements were made by Thompson-Wilson Funeral Home of McCrory, Arkansas.
