Anne Gates Lorance

Anne Gates Lorance, 75, a retired college professor residing in Orange Beach, Alabama, died on May 20, 2016. She was born in Little Rock on April 12, 1941, to the late James Barkman Gates and Mary Jane Kingman Gates. Anne attended Little Rock public schools. She would have graduated from Hall High School in 1959, but Governor Orval Faubus and the state legislature closed all Little Rock high schools that year in an attempt to block the city's efforts to begin desegregating its schools. In the fall of 1958, only a few weeks after she expected to start her senior year in high school, Anne enrolled as a freshman at Hendrix College. Anne appeared in a photograph in the November 3, 1958 issue of Life magazine along with two of her fellow displaced Hall High classmates. The photograph showed Anne and her two classmates walking to class as freshmen at Hendrix. Anne subsequently transferred to Southern Methodist University, where she was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and received her Bachelor's degree in 1963. Anne was committed to the importance of education to individual lives and to healthy communities. She taught in the Little Rock public schools and served as the Principal of Woodruff Elementary School. While living in Little Rock Anne earned a Masters of Science degree in Education from the University of Central Arkansas. In Little Rock Anne also worked in the nationally respected early childhood development program directed by Dr. Bettye Caldwell. She subsequently moved to Memphis and earned her Doctor of Education degree at Memphis State University in 1991. In Memphis Anne met and married her surviving husband, Paul Lorance. After Anne completed her doctorate degree, she and Paul moved to Dothan, Alabama, where Anne taught for many years on the faculty of Troy State University. After retiring from the faculty of Troy State University, Anne and Paul moved to Orange Beach, Alabama. Anne was preceded in death by her mother, father, and a former husband, Orlan Jack Morgan Jr. Anne is survived by her husband, Paul; her older daughter, Cynthia Mason Scheiner; her twins, Howard Irving Mason and Kathleen Kingman Mason; a brother, Allan Gates; two grandchildren, Benjamin Scheiner and Grayson Scheiner; two nieces, Lorraine Gates Schuyler and Elizabeth Gates Spontak; and two great-nephews, Charles Schuyler and Samuel Schuyler. A memorial service and interment of ashes in Little Rock at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral is scheduled for Friday, June 17th, at 10:30 a.m. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be directed to Reading Is Fundamental, 1730 Rhode Island Ave. NW, Suite 1100, Washington, DC 20036, or a charity of the donor's choice.