Obituary of Anna Lucille Elgan

Anna Lucille (Sneed) Elgan, age 87, died March 8, 2019 in Pikeville, TN.  She was born June 27, 1931 in Nashville, TN, to John Thomas Sneed and Rosie Elizabeth (Spain) Sneed.

    Ann was raised during lean times in a large family in Nashville, TN, where there was not a lot of material wealth, but a lot of family love.  Her first job was at a bakery in Nashville, where she found her love of baking, allowing her to later learn to make the cookies, cakes, pies, and gingerbread men that her family loved and she would use to spoil her family.

   Ann married Jim Elgan in 1951, and quickly became the glue that held her family together.  She stayed in the United States with their first son while her husband fought with the US Army in the Korean War and then with their two sons while he served in the Army in Germany.  She then traveled with her two young boys via train and a large four engine propeller driven plane so they could join Jim in Germany, where they lived among the German citizens for eighteen months.  The family returned to the US on a troop transport ship through the stormy North Atlantic and was thrilled to see the Statue of Liberty as they sailed up Long Island Sound.  Anna kept the family going during the many times they moved with their two, then three sons during Jim's twenty years of Army Service.

   Ann and Jim finished raising the boys in Fayetteville, NC after Jim's Army retirement.  After Jim's Civil Service retirement in 1983, they returned to her native Tennessee and lived in Lyles.  Ann and Jim enjoyed touring the country with their camper trailer in tow.  She ran the kitchen at the Cedar Crest Methodist Camp for four years, where her taco salad was the hands-down favorite among the campers and staff.  She enjoyed her vegetable garden, her flowers, and watching the hummingbirds from the back porch of their home.  Her love, candor and wit were a delight to those who knew her.  After the death of her beloved husband in early 2018, Ann moved to Pikeville, TN with her oldest son and was loved and visited frequently by the rest of her family until her death on March 8, 2019.

   She was preceded in death by her beloved husband of 66 years, James Alfred Elgan; and parents, John Thomas and Rosie Elizabeth Sneed.

   She is survived by her three sons, Patrick (Elizabeth) Elgan, Michael Elgan and Robert (Lora) Elgan; sister, Norma Coe; granddaughters, Mandy Elgan (Jason Collett) and Erin (Matthew) Stockwell; grandsons, Benjamin (Katelin) Elgan and Jonathon Elgan; great-granddaughters, Abigail and Emily Collett and Addisyn and Kylee Ann Stockwell; great-grandsons, Grayson and Jackson Yeargan and Mason Stockwell; nephew, Johnnie Williams; niece, Annie Fay Smith; nephew, Rocky Coe; and great-niece, Sydney Coe Rogers.

  Graveside services will be held at The National Cemetery in Chattanooga, TN on April 12, 2019 at 11:00 a.m. CDT.  Online condolences can be made at reedfamilyfh.com. Arrangements are by Putnam-Reed Funeral Home, 1171 Main Street, Pikeville, TN.