Avis de décès de Anna Sargeant

LAKELAND -- Mrs. Anna B. "Meme" Sargeant was a natural when it came to working with children. The baby room attendant for the Publix Child Development Center died of heart failure Tuesday (May 25, 2004) at Lakeland Regional Medical Center. She was 85. "She just gave unconditional love to our babies and our children. She was a role model for all of us," said Kay Moran, director of the Publix Child Developement Center, who hired Mrs. Sargeant in April 1985. "She was very motivational in her inner spirit and in the history of our center. We've been enriched by her and blessed by her. "She was an earthly angel and now she is a heavenly angel." Born in Goldsboro, N.C., on Feb. 27, 1919, she came to Lakeland from Raleigh, N.C., in 1941. Mrs. Sargeant, who was a homemaker until the age of 65, worked with children through Sunday school, vacation Bible school, the church nursery, the Mother's Day Out program and the Children's Clothes Closet at First United Methodist Church, where she was a longtime member. She began working part time five afternoons a week at the Publix Child Development Center in the baby room. "She worked at the Child Development Center for 19 years, which is just a few weeks shy of when it opened," said her daughter, Alice Ann Sargeant of Lakeland. After requiring chemodialysis, she started working three days a week, on the days that she didn't go in for treatment. "In recent years, she just came to rock babies. Before that, up until she was about 80, she did the regular job of taking care of babies, but in the last couple of years or so, she came three days a week just to love them and rock them," Moran said. She was a member of the Polk Association Of Young Children and the Tuesday Music Club. She was a member of the Homebuilders Sunday School Class, and was named Layperson of the Year at First United Methodist Church. Mrs. Sargeant was preceded in death by her husband of 47 years, John B. Sargeant Sr., in 1989. In addition to her daughter, she is survived by her sons, John Boyd Sargeant Jr., C. Richard "Dick" Sargeant and Bill Sargeant, all of Lakeland; brothers, Percy L. Bostick, Greensboro, N.C., the Rev. Joe K. Bostick, Raleigh, N.C., and Edward A. Bostick, Fort Worth, Texas; 10 grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; two stepgrandchildren; and two stepgreat-grandchildren. Visitation will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday at Heath Funeral Chapel. Services will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at First United Methodist sanctuary. Memorials may be made to First United Methodist Church Children's Ministries or the Clothes Closet, 72 Lake Morton Drive, Lakeland, 33801.