On January 26, 2024, Anne Elizabeth Frankenfield Howlett, 87, passed away peacefully in Pullman, WA after a brief illness. She will be greatly missed by her family and the communities whose lives she touched.

Born on July 1, 1936 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to Ellen (Hahn) & Maynard Frankenfield, Anne was a treasured gift to her parents as their only child. After attending Moravian Preparatory School in Bethlehem, she graduated from Moravian College with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1957.

On December 29, 1957 Anne married David Howlett in a festive winter wedding set against the famous Christmas lights of Bethlehem. The couple were united in a glittering candlelight ceremony at the Old Moravian Chapel in Bethlehem. Her Matron of Honor was Mrs. Trudy Howlett and her bridesmaids were Ms. Barbara (Werkheiser) Dietterich, Ms. Patricia Bergner, Mrs. Musselman and Mrs. Hatboro. In 1959 she gave birth to her daughter Elizabeth "Betsy" Howlett, and in 1964 she had a son, Scott Howlett.

If you asked Anne who she was, she'd tell you she was a Moravian first, Anglophile second. Her relationship with the Moravian Community defined her entire life story. She was the descendent of early Moravian colonists who settled in what became Nazareth and Bethlehem in Pennsylvania. Anne would often joke that the only early Moravian she wasn't related to was Count Von Zinzendorf himself. In 2007 her dream of visiting the Count's estate in Herrnhut, Germany, finally came true as she made the pilgrimage with a Moravian church group and her beloved cousin, Barbara Dietterich.

Anne kept the Moravian legacy of study, prayer and social justice alive. She spent her entire career nurturing the next generation as an elementary teacher with Bethlehem Public Schools. Many of her students remember her fondly to this day. Anne also spent decades volunteering. As a member of Friends of Moravian Hall Square, she organized tea parties and fashion shows for the residents. She spent decades volunteering at the Moravian Historical Society and the Moravian Archives, happily organizing old manuscripts, poring over photographs, and assisting curators and researchers in preserving the history of her people. Until her dying day, she held out hope that her beloved Historic Moravian District in Bethlehem would be awarded UNESCO World Heritage Site status.

Anne was a lifelong active member of Nazareth Moravian Church, the church of her parents and grandparents. She was baptized as Moravian in Nazareth at her grandparent's home, George and Clara (Seyfried) Hahn on August 2, 1936. On April 2, 1950 at age 13, she was confirmed at Nazareth Moravian. Anne continued to study the Moravian Daily Texts no matter where she lived.

After her children relocated to Arkansas, summers were spent down south with her children and grandkids, who knew her as "Ganne." She prided herself on always having snacks ready and never tired of reading storybooks, singing nursery songs and passing on her knowledge of the Moravian Church. She also took up the challenge of learning Southern cooking, baking blueberry cobblers weekly and cooking up venison stew. Anne enjoyed rolling up her sleeves to tend to her vegetable and flower gardens. She loved Pioneer Woman so much that in the late 2010s she finally agreed to go online and joined Facebook on her new iPad just to follow Ree's content. Anne supported her son Scott's passion for hunting, gladly joining his wife Tina in the kitchen to cook up whatever he brought home. Anne enjoyed the great outdoors back in Pennsylvania as well, and spent many decades soaking up time in the woods at Hutt's Farm in Snyder County with treasured family friends Helen and Charlie Hutt.

Anne relished teaching her family about culture and history through food. Her rhubarb pies and shortbread cookies were legendary, as were her Bethlehem-style cheesesteak subs. During these summers "down South" she attended Bible Study Fellowship weekly at Central Methodist Church in Fayetteville, AR.

And while she was never a pet owner, it was only because potbellied pigs are not so easy to care for. Her home in Bethlehem was home to a rich collection of porcine collectibles alongside family treasures like frakturs and Moravian stars passed down through generations. Anne cherished her time as a babysitter though, and this did extend to pets. She always looked back fondly on the six months she spent caring for Duke, her daughter's dog, at her home in Bethlehem when Betsy and her family temporarily moved to Australia for her sabbatical.

She also spent many years caring for her great-grand-cousin, Kellen Dietterich back home in Bethlehem, PA. In 2019, to be closer to her immediate family, she moved to Pullman, WA to live at Regency, an assisted living facility in her daughter Betsy's neighborhood. She made many new friends at Regency and was actively involved in community Bible study.

Anne's best friend was Jill Whittington Barker, an Englishwoman from Middlesex. When World War II broke out, Anne was matched with Jill through an elementary school pen pal program. Since childhood, Jill and Anne wrote weekly letters to each other, sharing joy, expressing grief, and supporting one another through written correspondence until Jill's passing in late 2021. Anne especially treasured the memories of her two trips to England, once in 1981 with her son Scott and again in 1993 to visit Jill. Anne also closely followed the life of Queen Elizabeth II, a figure whose strength, dignity, and sense of duty strongly resonated with her.

Anne was preceded in death by her husband, David L. Howlett; her parents Ellen and Maynard Frankenfield; her aunt Florence Snyder; and her best friend Jill (Bart) Barker. She is survived by her daughter, Elizabeth Howlett (Michel Faupel); her son and daughter-in-law Scott & Tina (Matranga) Howlett; her grandchildren Amy Creyer (Benjamin Percifield), Will Creyer (Andrea Hinkel Creyer), and Matthew Creyer; her great-grandchildren Naomi & James Creyer; and her cousins Barbara Dietterich, Larry Snyder, Ronald Snyder, and Dennis Snyder.

The date for Anne's memorial service and internment at Nazareth Moravian Church & Cemetery to be announced by the Church at a later date. In remembrance of Anne's lifelong love of Moravian history, the family asks that any charitable donations be directed to the Moravian Historical Society.

https://www.moravianhistory.org/support