Anne Bates Pearson

Anne Stuart Bates Pearson
December 16, 1934 - October 16, 2025

Anne Stuart Bates Pearson of Webster Groves, Missouri and Coral Gables, Florida, died peacefully of old age on Thursday, October 16, 2025.

Anne was born in St. Louis, Missouri and came from an extended loving family devoted to the arts, philanthropy, and theology. She was fiercely proud of her Midwestern upbringing.

She attended Mary Institute in St. Louis and Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia, where she majored in Art History and made many lifetime friends whom she treasured. Her best friend Molly Laird Gould and she had many adventures together at home and abroad.

In 1960, Anne married David Henry Pearson of Miami, Florida, and the two of them joined Charles Fraser in the development of the fledgling Sea Pines Plantation on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Anne gave birth to her first two children, Christopher and Margaret, in Savannah, Georgia, while living on Hilton Head Island, as there was no hospital (or even doctor's office!) on the island. Her third child, Katherine, joined the family several years later, when Anne and David were living in Washington D.C. while David was working for the Kennedy administration.

In the later 1960's, Anne and David relocated their young family to Coral Gables, Florida, where they lived on Hardee Road in the historic French Village for over 40 years. David grew his business in public relations, and Anne was a committed and active mother of her three children.

For decades, she stayed extremely busy in parents' associations at various schools, and in social activism. She was a member of the Planned Parenthood Committee and was a chosen foreperson in one of Florida Attorney General Richard Gerstein's Grand Juries.

Anne touched the lives of many with her friendliness, dazzling smile and quick wit. She was a brilliant, funny storyteller, a generous friend, and possessed an uncanny ability to connect with just about anyone.

Anne fiercely loved being with her family and friends, and traveling. She particularly loved visiting relatives in Germany and she also made countless trips to New York City to attend the theatre and musicals. She and her family spent every summer at Sea Pines where she loved to reminisce about the "early days" and always felt very happy.

When asked how she would want to be remembered, she wrote, "I loved my family and friends, all of them. I hope I have been a good wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, granddaughter. I was fun to be with, loved animals, especially dogs. I was proud of my Midwestern origins, I loved my country and my church. I loved being in the world!!!! I loved - LOVED - to read, and was never happier than when I was curled up with a good book, preferably with a dog nearby. Heaven.

But mostly I loved being with my family. I had grown up cherished by my mother's large, loving family and spent lots of time with them. When I had my own, they became the focus of my life, and I have, myself, cherished them all more than they know."

She is predeceased by her mother, Frances Schultz Bates, her father, Charles Robinson Bates, and beloved brothers Bud and Rick Bates.

She is survived by her husband, David, son Christopher, daughters Maggie and Katie, grandchildren Alexandra, Edward, Eric and Charlie, great-grandson Alexander, and many beloved nieces and nephews.

Donations in Anne's honor may be made to Plymouth Congregational Church in Coconut Grove, Florida.

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