Ann Ross

Ann Rollow Ross, 94, died peacefully in her Clarksville home on May 27, 2025, surrounded by people who loved her.

She was born on April 4, 1931, in Memphis, to John Arch Rollow and Ella Louise Mayo Rollow. She and her sister Louise (Lisa) Mayo Rollow grew up in a picturesque cottage on the campus of Southwestern, now known as Rhodes College, where John Rollow served as the campus engineer after helping to relocate the school from Clarksville. Though Ann grew up in Memphis, attending Lausanne and Central High School, she often visited her Rollow relatives in Clarksville where she enjoyed countless parties and dances with her cousins. Among the crowd of young people she met on these visits was Neil Macphail Ross. Ann and Neil were married in April 1951, in the azalea garden outside her gatehouse cottage home on the Southwestern campus. Their eldest daughter, Lisa Dahin Ross, was born in 1954, followed by Evelyn Ann Ross in 1957.

The Ross family lived on a large farm off Rossview Rd., a wonderful place where many people gathered over the years on the porch or in the front yard to celebrate weddings and other events, or just to while away an evening amid the great company and conversation always on hand and led by Ann and Neil, each of them the life of any party. Ann and Neil raised two wonderful daughters, but they mentored and supported many other young people - an assortment of relatives, students, friends and children of friends - all drawn to their abundant warmth, good humor, affection and acceptance, and who considered the farm at Rossview a second home.

At some point, Ann – always a book lover – decided to take a part-time job at the Austin Peay bookstore and found she had a natural talent for the work, quickly establishing a reputation and a career as an excellent manager. Many former APSU students and bookstore employees have fond memories of Miss Ann at the helm. She worked at the APSU bookstore for 30 years, receiving several awards from college bookstore associations. The Ann R. Ross Bookstore on College St. was named in honor of her years of service and her dedication to the university.

Ann was very active at both Trinity Episcopal Church and Grace Chapel in Rossview. She served in a leadership role at Trinity for a number of years, helping to restore the sanctuary’s large stained glass window which had been damaged by a tornado. She attended Sunday morning services at Trinity into her 90’s, always considering her church community to be one of the most important parts of her life.

A vivacious, petite force of nature, Ann was fiercely independent and indomitable in the face of great sadness in her long life. She was preceded in death by her parents Louise and Johnny, by her sister Lisa Rollow Justis, by her daughters Lisa Dahin Ross and Evelyn Ross Hinson, by her former husband, Neil Ross, and by childhood friend Blair Erb, with whom she reconnected late in her life, and with whom she shared 11 wonderful years. Early in her marriage to Neil and a month from delivering her first child, she was severely injured in a car accident, spending weeks in traction with multiple broken bones, yet both she and baby Lisa survived. Aided by her faith and by sheer determination, Ann was able to get up and keep smiling, time and time again.

Ann was immensely proud of her children. Lisa Dahin became a skilled and compassionate nurse midwife; Evelyn Ross Hinson became a skilled and compassionate physical therapist. Ann chose to honor their memories by endowing scholarships in their names at APSU, the Lisa Dahin Ross Endowed Fund of Excellence in Nursing, and the Evelyn Ross Hinson Memorial Scholarship supporting women studying biology. Ann also established the Neil Ross Memorial Scholarship in Mathematics at APSU and provided a gift to Rhodes College in Memphis in honor of her parents and her sister. A painting of the Rollow family now hangs outside the Rollow Dining Hall on the Rhodes Campus.

Her family and friends were the loves of her life, as were her church, Austin Peay, and the Clarksville community. She also loved a long line of cats, most recently Hope, Callie, Gato, and Luci-fur. She loved to read and to dance and to listen to Nat King Cole. She was a marvelous cook, was gifted at needlework, played the piano, was proud of the French she had learned, and she enjoyed a bourbon and water - just one - most every day at cocktail hour, joking about her friend Jim Beam.

Ann Ross leaves her nieces Catherine Ann Justis (Memphis), Louisa Justis Garrido (Hendersonville, NC), Kim Justis Eikner (Memphis), and Barbara Ross Ellis (Friday Harbor, WA), nephews Jeff Rollow Justis (Memphis) and Steven Frederick Strain (Memphis), nine great nieces and nephews, her cousins Clare Hamlett (Tucson, AZ) and John Terry (Phoenix, AZ), her god-daughter, Peggy Seay (Surprise, AZ), and her “brother,” E. Jeff Justis Jr. (Oxford, MS). She also leaves devoted friends Phil and Laura Harpel of Clarksville, whose unflagging support in recent years made all the difference, and many other friends in the Clarksville community.

From the bottom of their hearts, her family thanks the kind and competent caregivers who provided comfort to Ann during her last months.

We will miss her sense of humor, her positive spirit, and her beautiful smile. She now rests with the angels, and heaven shines a little brighter.

A memorial service be held at 1:00 pm on Saturday, June 28, at Trinity Episcopal Church following visitation in the Fellowship Hall from 11:30 am to 1 pm. In lieu of flowers, we ask that donations be sent to Trinity Episcopal Church or Grace Chapel, or to the charity of your choice.

Condolences may be made online at Navefuneralhomes.com