Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Ann Judson Walton Waller, known as “Ah” by her two grandchildren, passed away on Dec. 21, 2021.

She was born on Jan. 21, 1933 in Notasulga, and spent her entire life devoted to her family. Ann was the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Wilbur L. Walton.

Dr. Walton was a well-known Methodist minister, and he had several ministerial appointments in the South Alabama area, but Ann always considered her childhood home to be Mobile, where Dr. Walton was the minister of Ashland Place United Methodist Church during the 1950s.

Ann graduated from Murphy High School in 1950, and attended Huntington College her freshman and sophomore years before transferring to Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University), where she graduated in 1954. At API, she was a member of Alpha Gamma Delta Social sorority.

While she was attending API, she married Hal Knox Waller Jr. of Mobile in 1954. Her husband became a certified public accountant, and they moved to Atmore in 1957, where Hal established an accounting firm and was a partner there until his premature death in 1985.

During her many years in Atmore, Ann became a gifted school teacher at Bratt Elementary School until 1970 when she retired due to the premature loss of her son, Knox, to cancer, at the young age of 7.

During her 64 years of living in Atmore, Ann was involved and instrumental with activities of the First United Methodist Church of Atmore, where she and her family were and remain longtime members. She was also active in the American Cancer Society, United Fund and various civic activities of the city of Atmore, including the formation of “The Rap House.”

Ann was also a member of the Atmore Junior Service League, and participated in various school activities of her children and grandchildren. 

Ann was preceded in death by her husband, Hal Knox Waller Jr.; her son, Hal Knox Waller III; her grandson, Randell Gordon Nichols Jr.; and her parents, Dr. and Mrs. Wilbur L. Walton Sr.

She is survived by her daughter, Melissa Ann Waller Nichols (Randell Sr.) of Atmore; her granddaughter, Ann Walton Knox Nichols of Atmore; her brother, Wilbur L. Walton Jr. of Dothan; and her goddaughter, Dale Matthews Ash of Atmore. 

Ann suffered much tragedy and despair during her life with the premature loss of her son in 1970, the premature loss of her husband in 1985 and the recent and tragic loss of her grandson in 2019. However, Ann somehow managed to always retain a beautiful sense of style and grace through it all. She was the epitome of a “Refined Southern Lady.”

Ann’s legacy will be that she was a loving and devoted daughter, mother and grandmother; and she will be dearly missed by all that had the good fortune of truly knowing her.

A graveside service will be held today, Thurs., Dec. 23, 2021 at 4 p.m. at Oak Hill Cemetery in Atmore. Visitation will be held immediately following the service at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Randell G. Nichols.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to: The Randell Gordon Nichols Jr. Memorial Scholarship Fund, Escambia County High School, 1215 S. Presley St., Atmore, AL 36502.

Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.