Obituary of Ann L. Bennett

Ann L. Bennett of Santa Cruz passed away peacefully on July 6 at home, with her husband Dick, her sons David and John and close friends Pat and Bob Porter by her side. Ann was born Margaret Ann Leipfert on October 14, 1935, to Theodore and Helen Leipfert in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. She grew up in Binghamton, New York, graduating from North Senior High School in Binghamton. While serving in the U.S. Air Force she followed her love of flying, took flying lessons and earned her pilot's license, which she carried with her all of her life. After her Air Force service, living in Binghamton, she wrote a weekly article "Just for Fun" for the Deposit (New York) Courier and worked for a Civil Engineering firm. She came to California on a Stanford University engineering scholarship. While at Stanford, attending creative writing classes, she rediscovered her interest in writing. She met Dick Bennett, and they were married in 1962. After travels in the U.S. and Europe, they settled in Santa Cruz at the beginning of 1966. She followed local theater and for forty years wrote reviews for the Watsonville Pajaronian and the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Over the years, she earned the respect of the vital local theater community with her fair and thoughtful insights. She worked as a manuscript preparer, and as a paralegal, continued to travel in the U. S. and Europe, and despite diminished vision, knitted many hats which she donated to children and hospital patients. Ann is survived by her husband of fifty two years, Dick Bennett, her sons David Bennett of London, and John Bennett of San Jose, her sisters Phylis Finch, Ruth Ellen Pearsall and her husband Charlie, brother John Leipfert and his wife Marsha, all of Binghamton, New York, and many nieces and nephews. The family wishes to express their profound thanks to Hospice of Santa Cruz County, and to Pat and Bob Porter for their care and support during Ann's last days.