Anne Louise Mathys Fuller, 90, of Beaumont, Texas, died Monday, February 21, 2011, at Harbor Hospice in Beaumont.

Born June 29, 1920, in Berne, Indiana, Anne was the oldest of six children raised by Wilbur and Bessie Agnes Keesaer Mathys in Muncie, Indiana.  After graduation from Central High School in 1938, Anne attended Ball State Teacher’s College in Muncie for two years before fulfilling her childhood dream to enroll in Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing.  She graduated in 1943 with her Registered Nurse degree, including two years of advanced training.

After graduation, she worked as a charge nurse on the surgical floor at Johns Hopkins Hospital until the beginning of World War II.  Anne enlisted as a Second Lieutenant in the Army and met her future husband, Roy T. Fuller, of Macon County, Alabama, at Camp Shelby, Mississippi.  After additional training at Fort George Meade in Maryland, she served in Germany as a scrub nurse in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital until the war ended in 1945.  Her future husband, Captain Roy T. Fuller, followed her to Germany and served in the Artillery.

At war’s end, Anne and Roy married in a full military ceremony in Bad Aibling, Germany.  When they returned to the states, they lived in Alabama, Massachusetts, Maryland, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Illinois before settling in Montgomery, Alabama in 1970.  Anne moved to Beaumont, Texas in 2007.  Her nursing career included Director of Nursing, Jasper, Alabama Community Hospital and Jackson Hospital, Montgomery, Alabama, private duty nurse at Ball Memorial Hospital, Muncie, Indiana, charge nurse at Vanderbilt Hospital, Nashville, Tennessee, nurse at Henderson, Kentucky and Bloomington, Illinois hospitals, and a surgical scrub nurse for Gailey Eye Clinic in Bloomington, Illinois.  She served as Director of Nursing at Americana Nursing Home in Bloomington, Illinois and retired after sixteen years as Director of Nursing at Woodley Manor Nursing Home in Montgomery, Alabama.  She served as a lecturer in Geriatric Nursing for the Alabama State Nursing Association and gained certification as a Nursing Home Administrator. She was the first nurse appointed by the Governor of Alabama to serve on the panel that approves licenses of Nursing Home Administrators.

Anne was a member of Eastern Hills Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama from 1970 until her family joined Ridgecrest Baptist Church in 1978 where she served as Woman’s Missionary Union Director for six years.  She was a faithful member of the Dorcas Sunday School Class.  In 2007, she moved to Calder Woods Retirement Community in Beaumont, Texas and became a member of Calder Baptist Church and the Joy Sunday School Class.

She is survived by her brother, The Rev. William Mathys and his wife, Joyce, of Anderson, Indiana; her sister, Marcella Mathys of Asheville, North Carolina; her son, The Rev. Dr. James Fuller and his wife, Jo, of Beaumont, Texas; her daughter, Dianne Allen and her husband, Chip, of Charlotte, North Carolina; grandchildren Jenny Fuller of Fort Worth, Texas, Jessy Fuller of Houston, Texas, Ed Fuller of Vista, California, Anthony Fuller and his wife, Alicea, of Snellville, Georgia, John and Christina Fuller of Lawrenceville, Georgia; and numerous nieces and nephews.  She was preceded in death by her husband of fifty-four years, Roy T. Fuller, and her son, Thomas E. Fuller of Duluth, Georgia.

There will be a gathering of her family and friends from 4:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. Wednesday, February 23, 2011, at Broussard’s, 1605 North Major Drive, Beaumont.

Her funeral service will be 11:00 a.m. Monday, February 28, 2011, at Leak-Memory Chapel Funeral Home, 945 Lincoln Road, Montgomery, Alabama with burial to follow at Greenwood Cemetery in Montgomery.  A gathering of her family and friends will begin at 10:00 a.m. Monday prior to the service at Leak-Memory Chapel.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Calder Baptist Church, 1005 North 11th Street, Beaumont, Texas 77702 or to Ridgecrest Baptist Church, 5260 Vaughn Road, Montgomery, Alabama 36116.