Anna Lucy Cullen was born to Reverend Clinton Reed and his wife, Irene in Beargrove, Iowa on February 28, 1917. The family including her older sister, Celia, soon moved to Colorado where Anna attended school in Arvada and Loveland, graduating from high school in Loveland in 1934. In 1938 she received a B.S. degree in Sociology and teaching certificate from Colorado State University.
While teaching at the Boyero School she met her future husband William (Bill) A. Cullen. They were married by her father, Clinton, in Denver on January 8, 1944, while Bill was home on his last furlough before being shipped overseas to fight on the European front in World War II. She taught school in Eugene, Oregon until Bill was discharged from the Army in 1946. They returned to Boyero, where Bill went into the cattle business with his father and worked for the State Highway Department. Here Anna and Bill raised their family and continued to live until her death on February 27, 2003.
As a young woman Anna enjoyed ice skating, tennis, reading, and dancing with her future husband. She continued to enjoy reading, crossword puzzles, and the company of friends and family. Her daughters are grateful for the legacy of the love of literature, the arts, and music that they received from their mother. She celebrated her 86th birthday with Bill and her daughter Mary and husband Joe the weekend before her death.
She was preceded in death by her sister, Celia Jameson of Arlington, Virginia. She is survived by her husband Bill of Boyero, daughters Joanna (Jim Fox) of Seattle, Washington, Celia (Terry Cuthbertson) of Topeka, Kansas, Dorothy Vesecky of San Rafeal, California, and Mary (Joe Lamers) of Lakewood. She will also be missed by grandchildren: Mark and Brian Cuthbertson of Kansas City, Kansas and New York City, New York, respectively, Sarah and Michelle Vesecky of South Pasedena and Los Angeles, California, respectively, and Emma and Gevelle Fox Cullen of Seattle, Washington.
The family request donations to the Hugo Public Library or Lincoln County Community Hospital are made in Anna’s memory.
Funeral services were held Saturday, March 1, 2003 at 10:30 a.m. at the Hugo United Methodist Church in Hugo with Love Funeral Home of Limon in charge of arrangements.