E. Anna Nixon

E. Anna Nixon Eva Anna Nixon was born in Rodley, Baca County, Colorado October 29, 1916, and died February 28, 2012. She was the 5th child of pioneer parents, Fern and Fannie Nixon, who came to Colorado from Oklahoma and filed on a claim, built a house and moved into it with their four children, --Laura May, Ray Lynn, Carl Oliver, and Hazel Lois --just before Eva Anna (“Annie”) was born. Two more children were born there, Vern Elvin and Frank Albert, before the family moved fifteen miles to Vilas, the town where a new high school was just being built in 1928. With seven children, Fern and Fannie Nixon’s deepest desire was to make high school education possible to all of them. Anna entered Vilas High School in 1929 and graduated in 1933 with a desire to go on to college, but the dust bowl of that area brought drought and there was no money. However, Ellis and Ferne Cook arrived from Michigan to pastor the Friends Church in Vilas on Anna’s high school graduation day. By 1935 Anna had renewed her commitment to the Lord made at age 10, had become a member of the Friends Church, and had felt a call to be a missionary. The Cooks planned a trip back to Michigan that fall and offered to take Anna with them to Cleveland where they had graduated and where they assured her she would get work and also go to college. This happened, and after graduating in 1939 from Cleveland Bible College (now Malone College in Canton, Ohio), she was appointed by the Evangelical Friends Church, Eastern Region (then Ohio Yearly Meeting), to go to India in October 1940. World events were shaping up at that time toward war, and Anna could not get a passport, visa and sailing together until November 9, 1941, which landed her in Manila just before the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor which began World War II. She along with other passengers on the ship and some 4000 others were imprisoned in the Santo Tomas University until the Americans returned to Manila February 3, 1945, and rescued them. When Manila was at last in American hands, she was sent back to the U.S.A. on April 10, 1945 on the S.S. Eberle troop ship for recovery, rest and a new beginning, and finally arrived in India on Easter eve of 1946. In India, as a part of EFC-ER’s American Friends Mission, she learned the Hindi language, managed and taught in a boarding school, lived in a village and organized and taught adult literacy. By 1951 she was assigned to an all-India organization, The Evangelical Fellowship of India, at first as treasurer, then in charge of literature development, and by 1961 in charge of developing Sunday School literature in many languages of India, working with many denominations and committees in 26 languages. By 1972 she was recognized by Malone College with an honorary Doctorate of Literature, and in 1976, by Friends University with a Doctorate of Letters. She left India in 1980 but did not retire from EFC-ER’s appointment until January 31, 1984. During that time she wrote a history of the American Friends Mission in India titled “A Century of Planting” which was published in 1985. On February 2, 1984, Anna became a resident of the Friendsview Retirement Community (Manor). She continued editing and writing a number of mission-related books, became a member of West Chehalem Friends Church, and participated in committees related to the Residents Council of Friendsview. Family members still living are a sister – Hazel Adams in Hereford, Texas and a sister-in-law Geneva Frank Nixon, in West Covina, California. Also, there are many nephews, nieces and grand nieces and nephews and great grand nieces and nephews across the United States.

E. Anna Nixon

October 29, 1916 - February 28, 2012