Anna Ecker Cunningham

AIKEN – Anna Ecker Cunningham, 96, passed away peacefully on March 23, 2018, at Trinity on Laurens Lutheran Home where she had made her home for almost seven years. A Prayer Service will be held at 6:30 PM, Friday, April 13 at the old St. Mary Help of Christians Catholic Church on Park Avenue, after which the family will receive friends until 8:30 PM. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held 11:00 AM on Saturday, April 14 at the church with The Reverend Father Gregory Wilson officiating. Final Rites and Commendations will be held at Calvary Cemetery. A reception will follow the burial. Anne is survived by her three sons, William “Chip” Cunningham, Jr., Aiken, Robert C. (Kathy) Cunningham, Aiken, Stephen M. (Verd) Cunningham, Columbia, S.C.; two daughters, Julie (Jim) Pridgen, Concord N.C., and Patrice (Cas) Cader, Beaufort N.C.; nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her loving husband of 59 years, William Curry Cunningham. Anne was born in Dorchester, Mass., the youngest of four children of the late Joseph J. and Anna MacPherson Ecker. As a self-described tomboy, she grew up ice skating, swimming and canoeing at the family’s summer home at nearby Lake Populatic. She graduated from Framingham State Teachers College in 1942. During World War II, Anne took a job with the U.S. Chemical Corps at a military research laboratory at MIT in Boston. It was there she met her handsome Bill who was at the same facility serving his country. They married on July 6, 1945, and moved to Cranford, N.J., where Bill resumed his pre-war job with Southern Cottonseed Oil Company. Their three sons were born in New Jersey. In 1952, they moved to Aiken, close to Bill’s family home of Williston, S.C., where he began employment with DuPont at the Savannah River Plant. Their daughters were both born in Aiken. During the 1960s and beyond, the family spent many happy summers at Modoc on the lake at (then) Clarks Hill, where they physically built their own cottage and where Anne hosted endless weekends of family and friends, serving her legendary fresh peach ice cream. When Anne and Bill became empty nesters, they traveled extensively in the United States and abroad through the educational Elderhostel program. Anne’s common sense approach to the benefits of regular exercise kept her on the tennis courts and golf course well into her 80s, and she amazed everyone when she water skied at the age of 75. Anne had a wide circle of friends, young and old, whom she met and enjoyed during years of participation in various volunteer capacities, including the Aiken Hospital and the Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts, in which all five of her children were active.   But it was Anne’s unyielding Christian faith and commitment to her church of St. Mary’s for more than 60 years that she may be best remembered. For all of those years within her St. Mary’s parish community, Anne chose to serve selflessly, with grace, humility and with her eyes steadfastly on her heavenly Father. The Cunningham family would like to thank members of the staff at Trinity on Laurens who have provided a loving and safe environment for their mother for many years, as well as cousin Beth Thomas Harris and the staff of Kindred Hospice who helped care for Anne during her final days. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to St. Mary Help of Christians Catholic Church, P.O. Box 438, Aiken, SC 29802. SHELLHOUSE FUNERAL HOME, INC., 924 HAYNE AVENUE, AIKEN SC 29801 To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Anna Ecker Cunningham, please visit our flower store.