Ann Elizabeth Huff, 90, passed away Friday, Dec. 16, 2022, at 9:02 a.m. at Marshall Browning Hospital in Du Quoin. She had been hospitalized since Tuesday.
A woman who had her eye on the world, she loved the best of Southern Illinois.
Mrs. Huff oversaw a household that subscribed to three daily newspapers for decades while the radio was always tuned to KMOX-St. Louis. Dinner was served nightly with Sports Open Line with Jack Buck in the background.
A fervent supporter of Southern Illinois University and its Salukis as well as the Du Quoin State Fair, Mrs. Huff was an ambassador for both. She helped host Hambletonian press parties in Chicago for national media in the early-1970s and traveled the country with Saluki teams in the 1980s and 1990s.
Valedictorian of the Du Quoin Township High School class of 1948, she married Fred A. Huff in 1950 and they celebrated 72 years of marriage.
An accomplished bridge player, she also enjoyed travel, particularly to Las Vegas.
She leaves her husband, Fred Andrew Huff of Du Quoin; daughters Carol Ann Huff of Durham, N.C., and Susan Jean Huff Smith and husband, John, of Carbondale, and son, Fred Joseph Huff of Du Quoin; grandson, Christopher C. Spiller of Commerce City, Colo., and great-grandsons Caden and Coltin Spiller, and wife, Kara, of Colorado.
She was preceded in death by her father Charles Gaerig, her mother Clara, and siblings Charles, John, Carl, and Mary Catherine.
A funeral Mass will be celebrated at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Du Quoin, Thursday, December 22,10 a.m. Visitation is at Searby Funeral Home Wednesday, December 21, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
In lieu of flowers and to honor Mrs. Huff, the family asks you to consider supporting St. Francis Care Animal Rescue in Murphysboro or the Marshall Browning Tree of Life Fund.
Searby Funeral Home in Du Quoin is in charge of arrangements.