Anna Beard Bentz, of Atlanta, Ga., formerly of Vero Beach, passed away on June 27, 2015.
She is survived by her son, Bill, and his wife, Sandy Moss Bentz, of Sandy Springs, Ga.; grandchildren C. William Bentz IV and wife Amy, of Charlotte, N.C.; Wendy Elizabeth Hellman and husband Mikael and their children Anne Elizabeth and William Mikael Hellman of Jacksonville; Timothy Beard Bentz of Jacksonville; and Geoffrey S. Bentz of Brooklyn, N.Y.
She is also survived by her sister, Martha Fisher Walton of Vero Beach, and her daughters Susie Dailey, Sallie Donner, and Jeanne Andlinger.
In addition to her mother and father, Anne was preceded in death by her son, John Arthur (Jack) Bentz and brother, Jesse T. Beard of Hardinsburg, Kent.
Bentz lived at Grand Harbor in Vero Beach for more than 20 years before moving to Atlanta with her husband Bill to be near grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
She was born and raised in the small (pop. 900) farming community of Hardinsburg in western Kentucky where as a young girl she road her pony “Dorothy” to school each day. After graduating from high school she worked for the Breckinridge (KY) County Clerk and as an American Red Cross volunteer in nearby Fort Knox.
There she met in 1941 a young 2nd Lieutenant one month out of the University of Pennsylvania named C. William (Bill) Bentz, Jr., who had been assigned to 2nd Armored Division commanded by Gen. George Patton. They married 58 days after meeting and remained married for 70 years until Mr. Bentz’s death in 2012.
Mr. Bentz was shipped overseas and participated in the North African invasion at Casablanca in November, 1942. He fought across Africa, into Sicily, Salerno, Anzio and up into Southern France. At the war’s conclusion, he returned to Kentucky.
He and Anne soon moved to Wayne in the Philadelphia, Penn., suburbs. They were both passionate golfers. She played whenever she could while raising a family. She was invited to join the U. S. Senior Women’s Amateur Golf Association and played in their tournaments each year.
Bentz continued her volunteer work for the Red Cross. Years later she was honored at a luncheon for having given more than 10,000 hours in service to Bryn Mawr Hospital as a Red Cross Gray Lady. As a hobby, she also raised dozens of African Violet plants in her basement, and so large was her nursery she was once featured in a Philadelphia newspaper story. She was also active in the Daughters of the American Revolution.
