Obituary of Anne W. Shiffert

Anne "Annie" Patricia Weidner Shiffert, 82, of Lafayette Hill, Pa., a daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother, artist, teacher, cook, golfer, and a beachcomber of the many shores of life, passed away, as per her wish, at her long-time (since 1968) home on Mar. 8, 2012, a little more than a month before her 83rd birthday, having finally succumbed to pancreatic cancer. A resident of Lafayette Hill for 60 years, Mrs. Shiffert was a proud native of Beach Haven, on Long Beach Island in New Jersey, where her father, Elmer Frank "Pete" Weidner was a well-known realtor and her mother, Claribel Guhle Weidner, her aunt, Lotte Guhle, and her sister, Sue Weidner Wallace, were among the Island's most memorable residents. Although she left Beach Haven in 1950 to marry the boy she met on the beach in the summer of 1944, Mrs. Shiffert always had the sand of the Island between her toes. A graduate of Barnegat High School, she attended the Moore College of Art in Philadelphia and worked as a draftsman for Brown Institute, before retiring to concentrate her efforts on her two children, John A. Shiffert, Jr., and Sarah Anne Idell Shiffert. Although no longer a professional artist and calligrapher, she spent most of the next 60 years using her natural artistic gifts in various endeavors. At the same time, she also became a seasoned association management professional, sharing that profession with her husband and daughter, and providing invaluable service at more conventions, meetings, gatherings and other functions than anyone could count or remember. Indeed, it could be said that one of the reasons so many association conventions were so well-attended in the four decades that she practiced this craft was because of her effervescent presence at their meetings, a presence that also affected many people outside her professional life. True islanders never stray far from "the Shore," so Mrs. Shiffert spent many summers, and parts of some winters, visiting various beaches in locations like Beach Haven, Ocean City, N.J., Stone Harbor, N.J., and Islamorada, Fla. During the "off-season," she was also a dance instructor at Allen's Lane Arts Center, taught cooking classes at Germantown Friends School and was a Brownie leader at her church of 45 years, St. Peter's Lutheran in Lafayette Hill. A natural athlete who played six-on-a-side varsity basketball at Barnegat High School (where she was the tallest player on the team at 5-9), Mrs. Shiffert became a bowler, then a noted wiffle ball pitcher, then a tennis player, and finally a golfer later in life, and was the leading light of the Whitemarsh Valley Country Club "Nine Holers" for many years. Ironically, her athletic achievements generally eclipsed those of her sports-nut husband and son. In addition to her children, she is survived by the boy she met on the beach so long ago, her loving husband of 61 years, John A. "Jack" Shiffert, son-in-law John Fogarty, daughter-in-law Faith Shiffert, niece Dee Wallace, nephews Peter Wallace and Robert Wallace, and six grandchildren; Jackson "Jake" Fogarty, Conor Fogarty, Maggie Shiffert, Katie Shiffert, Jared Shiffert, and Joseph "Joe" Shiffert. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to; HomeInstead Senior Care, 507 Germantown Pk., Lafayette Hill, Pa., 19444, or Keystone Hospice, 8765 Stenton Ave., Wyndmoor, Pa., 19038. "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course." 2 Timothy 4:7. And, as all who knew her will attest, indeed she has.