Anne Summers Scrivener: A Life Well-Lived
Our mother, Anne Theresa Summers, oldest
child of Paul Francis Summers and Theresa Evalina Sasscer, (Ma and Pa Summers,
to us) was born in Croom, Prince George’s County MD on April 22, 1925. At the
time, her parents lived with her maternal grandmother, Theresa Evalina Wallis,
widow of Thomas Reverdy Sasscer. So Anne spent the first few years of her life at the Sasscer home, Breezy Hill, with her doting grandmother, whom Mom christened "Dama," a name she carried in the family for the rest of her long life. 
A few years later, the family moved to Maplehurst, a tobacco farm just outside Upper Marlboro, where Anne and her eight siblings grew up. Anne enjoyed the life of a farm girl, feeding chickens, churning butter, and growing prize-winning vegetables. Mom attended St. Mary's elementary school and Upper Marlboro High School, where she was a member of the National Honor Society and a champion debater (which no one who knew her later in life could ever doubt).
In addition, her teachers rated her very highly in those intangible traits like initiative and reliability that are so important for success in life. (We have the report card to prove it!)
During her school years, Mom also played the organ for the church when the “real” organist was not available. As she tells it, she was not really very good at this, but the Sister music teacher pretty much insisted. She said her trick was that she learned one song very well (“Long Live the Pope!”) and played it slowly for funerals and faster for weddings.
Mom met her future husband, Frank Scrivener III, (son of
Frank Scrivener and Elizabeth “Lib” Dent) when he spent his boyhood summers in
Upper Marlboro visiting his grandparents, Frank Scrivener Sr. and Louise Gwynn.
The Scriveners attended St. Mary’s Church, where the Summers family also
attended. And thus was born an enduring
relationship.Anne attended George Washington University in Washington DC and graduated in 1946, after which she briefly worked for the federal government before her marriage.
Anne and Frank were married at St. Mary’s Church in Upper Marlboro on August 2, 1947, the same church where both Anne's and Frank’s parents were married.
The newlyweds lived in a rented house on Dunkirk Road in Baltimore while Frank attended Loyola College on the GI Bill (and captained the tennis team). To make a little extra money, they rented their spare bedroom to Loyola basketball players. (Although, as Mom told it, they may not have made much money because those ball players were big eaters!)
In 1956, Anne and Frank and family moved to Millersville in Anne Arundel County, where Frank went to work for Reliable Asphalt and became its president. A few years later, the Scriveners purchased Mapleside Farm with its early-20th-century farmhouse and gorgeous sugar maples lining the driveway. Mom never forgot her farm-girl roots and was happy to be back in the open country where she could have a garden.
As a child of the Great Depression, Mom had naturally
learned to make do with what she had, a lifelong habit unaffected by any
financial security she and her husband eventually achieved. All of her children
recall the drawers full of old bread bags, washed and folded tin foil, and
stacks of carefully folded A&P bags that filled Mom’s pantry, as well as
her habit of cutting the mold off of “perfectly good” cheese, with much
eye-rolling by her children. Mom always preserved food, keeping the basement well-stocked
with canned peaches, beans, applesauce, jam, and tomatoes. (The memory of those hot, sticky summer
afternoons canning tomatoes is indelibly seared in our brains!) She also made a
mean salsa. By the way, Dave says there
are still some 50-year-old jars in the basement, and he is sure they are
“perfectly good!” Even in her 80’s, many an early morning would find Grandma in the garden in her skirt, blouse and sun hat, attacking those never-ending weeds for an hour or so before daily Mass.
Mom was an accomplished seamstress who made most of her own
and her daughters’ clothes, even coats. A certain red dress with a pinafore was especially memorable and was well-worn by the three girls. (Sorry, brothers, you just didn't look that good in pinafores.) She also made drapes and slipcovers which are still in use at the old family home.
Mom was a devout Catholic, with a special
devotion to the Blessed Mother and the rosary.
While some women collect stray cats, Mom couldn’t pass up an orphaned
religious statue; no saint was too obscure for her to rescue. Wondering in Mom’s basement was like being
among a veritable communion of wounded saints, waiting for her loving touch. If
any of you have been to the old family house, you no doubt recall the life-size,
full-color statue that occupies the stairway nook in the front hall. There was
a look of pure joy on Mom’s face when she discovered this abandoned Lady in the
Annapolis Goodwill Store and took her home to restore her and give her a place
of honor at Mapleside.On the more-earthly plane, Mom’s house was always full of people. She loved parties—birthdays, graduations, weddings, wakes, baby showers, family reunions. She hosted them all. Family members, classmates, friends, and neighbors could always be sure of a welcome at the Scrivener house. On numerous occasions, she took in folks who needed a temporary refuge and put them up at her house for weeks or even months at a time.
But the special focus of her affection was her grandchildren
and great-grandchildren. Even after
welcoming 70 babies into the family (30 grandchildren and 40 great-grandchildren),
she never stopped delighting in each new child.After 34,366 days on this earth, Mom died May 25, 2019, at home, where she always wanted to be.
Anne
Scrivener Agee Louise Gwynn Scrivener Maripat Scrivener Rogers
Frank
Phillip Scrivener Robert Keene
Scrivener David Brooke Scrivener
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