In Memoriam

Rancho Linda Vista Mourns the Loss of Author Ann G. Woodin

Ann Woodin, Arizona author and wife of artist Andrew Rush, passed away peacefully with her close family in attendance, in her home at Rancho Linda Vista in Oracle, on April 25, 2017 at the age of 90.

Ann was born in New York City in 1926, the daughter of Katherine Girolamin Rollins. She graduated from Wellesley College where she studied writing with Vladamir Nabokov and others. Eventually she was the author of three books, including her best known work, Home is the Desert, published in 1964. Her other works were In the Circle of the Sun (1971), an account of her extraordinary year long camping journey through the deserts of the old world with her family, and later The Rule of Two (1984) co-authored with her second husband Andrew Rush, an autobiography on relationship, as reflected in the art community of Rancho Linda Vista in Oracle Arizona.

Her service as a community volunteer is as distinguished as her writing career. Ann served on the Pinal County Board of Adjustments for many years; she was also a youth mediator for the Pima County Attorney Generals Office, Recording Secretary for the Oracle Town Hall, as well as recording secretary for the Board of the Rancho Linda Vista Artists Community. Before the onset of dementia in 2010, she also served as the Coordinator of Volunteers for more than ten years for The Drawing Studio of Tucson.

Ann had four sons with Bill Woodin, the first director of the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum: Peter, now an attorney in New York; John, Arizona Rancher and Builder; Michael an Artist, and Hugh, a mathematician, along with four step-children through her marriage with Andrew Rush, Arizona artist. She is the grandmother and step-grandmother to sixteen growing or grown children.

A Memorial Service is in the planning stages for May 28 at Rancho Linda Vista in Oracle. Please visit our facebook page for details or email Andy Rush. In lieu of flowers, gifts in her name can be contributed to The Drawing Studio in Tucson, or RLV OracleArts LLC, both non-profit art institutions. facebook page.