Anne Cecelia Wilson

• Our beloved daughter, sister, and friend, Annie Wilson passed away Sunday June 8th in bed at her Shoreline home. Annie was born in San Jose California in 1961, the first daughter of Thomas and Susan Wilson. Her childhood years were spent in Aldercroft Heights, a small mountain community just above Los Gatos. Through her days of hiking along the San Andreas Fault, exploring the old gold mine, or catching tadpoles in Los Gatos Creek, Annie developed independence and resilience as well as her love of freedom and adventure.
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• She enjoyed the friends she made attending Lexington School, many of whom she remained in touch with throughout her life. She developed an early talent for writing prose and poetry that served her well as a lifelong learner and advocate. After leaving Los Gatos High School with a GED, she ventured north and found a job cooking at Paradise Inn at Mt Rainier. Within a week of her arrival, Mt St Helens erupted as she was cooking Sunday brunch, the first of a lifetime of epic events!
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• Annie loved the Northwest for its beauty, its music scene and its liberal politics. She worked in a variety of clerical, retail and bookkeeping jobs but her favorites were working as a King County Elections Clerk and the box office work she did with the Intiman Theater, The Seattle Super Sonics, and SIFF. Friends and family referred to her as “The Ticket Queen” and she could get courtside seats at NBA games (including 1996 finals with the Chicago Bulls) or the front section for the final performance of Angels in America with the playwright, Tony Kushner, in the audience!
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Wherever Annie lived or worked, she made friends with her generosity, humor, and caring extroversion, and always-heightened sense of justice. Whatever she did, she did with enthusiasm, the ability to include others, and a contagious sense of adventure. She was genuine and heartfelt in interest in people and passion for justice and nondiscrimination. She remembered everyone’s birthday and was thoughtful in sending cards and staying connected with those she counted among her wide circle of friends.

She was outspoken about her beliefs, loved political conversations and readily shared her views, which always favored those with less power in any situation. She loved holding court at (the now defunct) Vivace on Broadway, working on the NYT crossword and meeting friends and family for coffee.

Her care and compassion for others and her strong value of social justice motivated her community activism. She was a proud member of ACT UP/ Seattle, participating in direct actions, advocacy and volunteering at the needle exchange table downtown to support HIV/AIDS prevention in marginalized communities. Her ability to connect with people from any background supported the use of harm reduction services and protected countless people in the community from contracting HIV.

Annie loved to travel and enjoyed living in London for a time and visiting twice more, viewing art in New York City, taking a cooking class in New Orleans with her favorite cousin, demonstrating for women’s rights in DC with her sister or attending the rally in Oakland, CA for Nelson Mandela following his release from prison. 

When her circumstances allowed, Annie made significant contributions to radio station KEXP, the Tibetan Nuns Project, and The Community Alliance for Global Justice which grew out of the World Trade Center action in Seattle. She sponsored many tables of ten at annual fundraisers, including her friends and family in supporting the causes that were so meaningful to her.

She became interested in Buddhism and began as a volunteer at The Tibetan Nuns Project and was hired as Development Director. She attended many teachings with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, receiving his personal blessing in New York City in 2007. The monks at Kopan Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal are praying for her throughout the Bardo.

Annie battled depression throughout her life and though she used antidepressants she was not able to access proper treatment. When the ACA demanded parity, Annie was able to afford long-term therapy options that provided support and made life easier. She earned admiration for her strength, resilience, and determination even while facing ableism, fat discrimination, and bias (including in her medical and mental health care.)

Proper treatment for depression and access to supportive housing meant that her last years were some of her best. Though not without the challenges of chronic pain affecting her mobility, she was able to maintain stable housing and employment for the longest period of her life, and care for the emotional support kitties that provided loving companionship. She was proud to be one of the “childless cat ladies” that kick ass in the struggle against oppression. Annie lived to see the release of Leonard Peletier, a cause she supported for decades.

She loved her job as a bookkeeper with the family-owned Town and Country Markets chain where she worked for over 8 years. She was an essential worker through the Covid years and rarely missed a day of work during the pandemic. Her membership in the SEIU grocery workers union meant a small pension that made living on Social Security easier.

Throughout it all our dearest Annie Bo Bannie (or Abb, as she often used in signing off) never lost her sense of humor, or her love of a good time. A daily Spelling Bee player, she loved to taunt her sister and mom each time she reached genius status!

Annie was preceded in death by her father, Tom Wilson and her adored aunts, Patricia Johnson, Nancy Wilson, and Margaret Shaw. She lost too many friends to early death including Becky Guttierez Ross, her childhood babysitter who introduced her to Tarot, taught her to be cool and how to live the epic way of life.

Annie will be missed by her mother, Sue Shaw, and her sister and her brother-in-law, Gwen Wilson and Patrick Williams all of Seattle. Her stepmother, Martha Wilson of San Jose, California and nineteen cousins scattered from California to New Jersey.

In lieu of flowers her family asks that donations in Annie’s name be made to PAWS in Lynnwood, WA at WWW.PAWS.ORG the source of several of her well-loved support cats. 

• Join us for tea to remember and honor Annie’s life.
• Sunday, August 17, 2025
• 3 pm to 5 pm
• Sky Lounge at Horizon House
• 900 University Street
• Seattle