Anne Baker Pipkin

Anne Baker Pipkin, 86, passed from this life on June 7 in the early morning hours due to the frailty of age. Self-described as “Anne with an E”, Anne was an old-fashioned belle of the ball who knew and declared her value as a person and fiercely asserted her will in every situation. Anne loved meeting and connecting with all of God’s people. In her widowhood, Anne was the queen of the Long Island Café on the Isle of Palms where she reigned from her favorite banquette most nights, entertaining both diners and the staff, for more than 20 years.

With her trademark long, dark hair and Black Cherry lipstick, this beauty with a deep Southern drawl charmed and bedazzled everyone she met. Few did not succumb to her spell, most especially her late husband, John Benton Pipkin II, who loved her at first sight when they were young teenagers on Sullivan’s Island. Ever persistent, John would spend the rest of his 65 years winning her, loving her, and spoiling her rotten.

Anne was born June 30, 1937 at Baker Hospital in Charleston to Dr. Robert J. “Booie” Baker of Charleston and Anne Linley Baker, a native of Anderson, S.C. Anne was the oldest of four children, two girls and two boys. Anne’s father served as a U.S.Army doctor in Europe during World War II, and she vividly remembered his unsettling absence from their Gibbes Street home. When she heard the news that her daddy would soon be returning, the eight-year-old girl painted “The war is over! The war is over!” across their white picket fence. Anne was a natural storyteller and wove together her own memories with tasty morsels about the various deeds and misdeeds of local eccentrics and colorful personalities. Her two daughters and six grandchildren were the beneficiaries of these oral histories that focused mainly on her childhood and coming of age, circa 1940-1960.

After graduating from Ashley Hall, Anne went off to Converse College in Spartanburg. In her senior year, she shed college like a schoolgirl’s sweater to marry John Pipkin, the victor among a buzzing swarm of beaus. A native of Reidsville, N.C. with Charleston roots on his mother’s side, John visited his local Pringle aunt at every opportunity in order to court Anne Baker. It was an uphill climb for the tobacco road North Carolinian.

The night of her debutante ball, a gowned and white-gloved Anne jilted John by announcing that she would attend the after parties with another suitor who was a better dancer. In what later became family lore, John carried Anne’s suitcase with her change of clothes across the length of the South Carolina Society Hall ballroom and dramatically handed it to his archrival, saying, “I believe this belongs to you now.” Yet John would eventually win Anne’s heart via long distance. After graduating from the Virginia Military Institute in 1957, John flew off to sunny Spain for language immersion and travel adventures. Anne did not hear from John for months and months, and to her surprise, her skin broke out from grief and she fell to pieces. When John finally returned Stateside and called on her at Converse, Anne grabbed his hand and blurted, “Let’s get married!”

That happy marriage would take her away from her beloved Charleston. For almost 40 years, John and Anne built their life in Charlotte, where he had a long career in banking. They raised their girls Anne Hunter and Ruthie (now Pringle) and established a network of friends, making the foreign “northern” terrain of Charlotte seem like home. Yet whenever Anne met someone new, she was quick to say, “I live in Charlotte, but I am from Charleston.” Anne never got over her good fortune of having Lowcountry roots and a well-disciplined upbringing where she was taught good manners and Victorian principles, such as honoring your word and never attending movies on Sundays. However, in later years she often reflected that living in North Carolina had helped her “grow into her own person”. Even so, she never strayed from the classic feminine traditions handed down by her own mother: a lady should not work outside the home; a lady should always wear lipstick and look her best; a lady should wear a dress; and a lady should always take care of herself so that she could get another man, should the need arise. Animated by nature, Anne was eager to engage in personal conversations with total strangers encountered in department stores, waiting rooms, or at restaurants. At times her young girls were held hostage for hours while Anne played the role of an amateur psychologist. Anne would eagerly listen to tales of woes and dispense inspirational advice, such as, “Don’t worry about what other people think. Be true to yourself”. Another nugget was “look out for yourself because no one will ever care about you as much as you do.”

After cancer took John away from her in 2000, Anne eventually returned to Charleston, where her younger daughter Pringle Franklin and her family had settled. She spent most of her final two decades catty-corner from the old Baker Hospital started by her grandfather Dr. Archie Baker. Anne loved living on Colonial Lake and was especially grateful for the beauty of the trees and flowers. Her condo was on the same block with the Franklin family, enabling her local grandsons to digest a steady diet of her stories.

Anne Baker Pipkin is survived by her two daughters, Anne Hunter Pipkin (Kevin Queen) of Charlotte and Ruth “Pringle” Pipkin Franklin (Sam) of Charleston; six grandchildren: John Benson of Charlotte; Hunter Benson of Washington, D.C.; Linley Benson of Washington; Clay Franklin of Charleston; Benton Franklin of Chapel Hill, N.C.; Baker Franklin of Charleston. Her two younger brothers, Robert Jennings Baker Jr. (Barbara) of Lynchburg, Va., and John Linley Baker (Susan) of Raleigh, N.C., survive her. Other family members include numerous nieces and nephews, great nieces and great nephews, and a bevy of cousins in Charleston and the Anderson area. Her younger sister Caroline Baker Murrell predeceased her.

A viewing and visitation will be held Tues., June 11 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the James A. McAlister Funeral Home, 1620 Savannah Highway. A graveside service will be held Wed., June 12 at 1 p.m. at Magnolia Cemetery (Greenhill section). Pallbearers include sons-in-law Sam Franklin, M.D., and Kevin Queen; grandsons John Benson, Clay Franklin, Benton Franklin, and Baker Franklin. Honorary pallbearers are brothers Robert and John Baker. Memorials may be given to the Preservation Society of Charleston, 147 King Street, Charleston, S.C., 29401 ( Preservation Society ).

Arrangements by James A. McAlister, (843) 766-1365.