Annette Gail Howanitz-Barron was born in Jacksonville in 1941, the eldest of four siblings and the only girl. Her childhood was marked by hardship—an abusive, alcoholic father and the responsibility of helping raise her younger brothers. But even then, she had grit, humor, and a heart full of love. She remembered dancing on her daddy’s shoes, racing horseshoe crabs in the Keys, and waking up one December morning to find a newborn baby brother between her and her Mama, her “Christmas gift.”
She married young, partly for love and partly to escape chaos, and raised four children through hard times. When her husband left, Miss Anne didn’t crumble. She conquered. In 1970s Miami, she broke into real estate, then a man’s world, and made it her own. She closed her first sale in under 30 days, invested in Kendall and the Redlands, ran a plastering company, launched a hardware store, and bought the Chuck Wagon Restaurant simply because she was tired of men getting all the seats at lunch.
By the early ’80s, she ran for Fire Commissioner and won, beating out four men. She chaired the Metropolitan Dade County Fire Board and oversaw a $95 million budget, proudly reminding women everywhere: “Any goal is attainable. It’s not a man’s world, but a people’s world.”
She traveled the world, bought a mountain home, and turned her 200-acre farm in Levy County into a family refuge. She brushed shoulders with the Cocaine Cowboys era but always stayed on the right side of the law. And through it all, she poured her heart into her children and grandchildren. We just called her Mema.
She passed away on September 11th this year, and I will never forget her. She taught us strength, style, and self-respect. God broke the mold when He made her, and she will forever be my hero, my best friend, and my guardian angel.
I do it all for her. Girl power.
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