Submitted By Keith Larson
The Caliente Volunteer Fire Department announced the theme for this year’s Fourth of July Celebration – “SALUTE TO VOLUNTEER SERVICE”. All of you volunteers be sure to take advantage by getting hold of our 4th of July Parade Chairman John Tibbetts Jr. for an entry in the parade.
Our grand marshal this year is Ann Smith for her volunteer service with the Meadow Valley Ambulance Service for the past 26 years. I had the opportunity to sit down with Ann and recapture a little of her story.
Ann Petersen was born in Austin, Minn. She went to school in Ogden, Utah graduating from Weber State College. She majored in education. Ann did not want to teach at a large community and was offered a contract to teach at a one-room schoolhouse in Carp, Nev. In 1973. This was just what Ann wanted as she was used to the rural life. Well, she came to Caliente to prepare for the adventure of a lifetime and because she was also schooled in music, Burl Gordon convinced her to take the fifth-grade class at the Caliente Grade School. Ann met Kevin Smith that year and they were wed the following year 1974.
Ann quit teaching for a few years to raise her and Kevin’s seven children, Vera, Marie, Brenda, Alma, Cory, Jeanette and Neal. She returned to teaching as the first certified kindergarten teacher for 13 years, then 13 years as the first-grade teacher and finally 13 years as the third-grade teacher.
