Posted by Newspaper Transcriber on Saturday, October 21, 2006 at 18:45:48 :

Ann Mary Chalfont

In the six years she lived on the Coastside with her daughter and family, Ann Mary Chalfont made many friends and became a particularly familiar figure at Pillar Point Harbor. She loved to sit on the benches there near the boat slips, and enjoy the ambience, watch boats and sea life and chat with the people who often stopped by to visit with her.

"People would come and talk to her," said her daughter, Kathleen Chalfont of Moss Beach. "One day, a fellow offered her a beer."

Mrs. Chalfont died May 25 at Seton Medical Center Daly City, 20 days after celebrating her 93rd birthday.

She was born Ann Mary Hart in Wilkes Barre, Pa., in 1913, and moved to Washington, D.C. during World War II. In 1942 she married Eugene E. Chalfont and the couple moved to Adelphi, Md.

For 30 years, Mrs. Chalfont worked for The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. in the treasurer's office, and was the chief secretary to the university president. She loved her work; when she reached mandatory retirement age "she kept retiring and going back," said her daughter.

A frequent Coastside visitor, she came here in 1999 to live with her daughter and her family, and became very active in the world around her. Besides the harbor, she loved to go to the former Chart House restaurant in Montara to watch whales.

She was also fond of visiting the local library and enjoying puppet shows her daughter put on there for local children.

"She was very people-oriented," said her daughter.

Mrs. Chalfont became a role model for her family, inspiring her granddaughter to make her the subject of a school essay on her own heroine, and overcoming adversities without complaint.

She underwent 17 surgeries in the years she lived on the coast, but "never became nasty or snappy or complaining," even when she lost a leg and had to learn to use an artificial prosthesis at age 92, her daughter said.

Mrs. Chalfont is preceded in death by her husband, Eugene, who died in 1975. She is survived by her daughters and sons-in-law, Kathleen Chalfont and Richard Tabor of Moss Beach and Joann and David Whitford of Bethesda, Md., and grandchildren Madeleine and Patrick Tabor and Mandy and Jacqueline Whitford.

She is also survived by her sister, Kathleen Smith, of Mechanicsburg, Pa.

Funeral services were held in Silver Spring, Md., on May 30. Her family is considering placing a memorial to her on the Coastside. Prior to her passing, Mrs. Chalfont had requested that in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions be made to a food bank of choice.

Half Moon Bay Review and Pescadero Pebble, Wednesday, June 28, 2006