Ann (Birmingham) Mattingly of House Springs never wasted a moment of her long life. “She knew what needed to get done and knew it was going to get done because she was going to do whatever it took to get it done,” said her daughter, Beth Mattingly, 57, of Webster Groves. “She was a very quiet, unassuming person who accomplished a lot.”
Over the course of her 92 years, Mrs. Mattingly raised 13 children, worked on a farm, delivered mail for more than 20 years, then volunteered to lead a clothing ministry for a west Jefferson County food pantry for her last quarter-century, Beth said.
Born Sept. 10, 1923, in Whitney Point, New York, young Ann was 12 when her father and mother, James and Ida Birmingham, brought their family of nine children to Valley Park.
At 19, she married John Mattingly, and, like so many brides of that time, saw him off to war. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II, returning home in 1944.
The couple eventually settled near the small town of Wilhemina, in Southeast Missouri just about a mile from the Arkansas border. There, they scratched out a living on 40 acres, raising cotton, soybeans and a garden.
Mrs. Mattingly canned home-grown fruits and vegetables and used the family’s chickens and annual hog and cow to put food on the table. She made clothing for the whole family.
“She made my first communion dress and there were even times she made our underwear,” Beth said.
Mrs. Mattingly always worked, her daughter said.
“She never sat down. Within days of having birthed a child, she was back in the cotton field with the baby in a bassinet in the shade or secured to a cotton sack (as she moved through the fields picking cotton),” Beth said.
Although the family had plenty to eat, they didn’t have much else, she said.
“She got tired of being dirt poor and wondering where the next dime was coming from,” Beth said.
Mrs. Mattingly worked a while for a Head Start program, but then took the Civil Service test and went to work for the Postal Service as a postal carrier. Because there weren’t any openings in post offices near her home, she took a position on a walking mail route in Kirkwood in 1968. The job required her to stay in Kirkwood during the week, making the 200-mile trip home to spend weekends with her husband and children on the farm.
When she had saved enough money, she bought a house in House Springs and the family moved there.
“One of the most impressive things to me was that she was the first female mail carrier in Kirkwood. And she never ever said a thing about women’s lib,” Beth said. “She knew it was what she had to do if she was ever going to get off the farm.”
Ann retired from the post office after 20 years in 1988.
But she wasn’t finished.
Mrs. Mattingly began devoting more and more time to the clothing ministry she had started at the Agape House food pantry in Morse Mill. That pantry would later become the Peace Pantry in Cedar Hill.
“She found her niche,” Beth said. “She would take the clothing home, wash it, fold it, iron it and bring it back (to the pantry),” Beth said.
Mrs. Mattingly held “bag sales” to provide clothing to the needy at her house in Byrnes Mill.
“She put up signs and the Byrnes Mill Police showed up at the house,” Beth said. (Signs were not allowed) “She was surely mad about that. She wrote a letter to the city.”
The Peace Pantry set aside a room that remains today, “Annie’s Closet,” for Mrs. Mattingly’s clothing ministry. She washed, sewed and distributed clothing for more than 25 years, not stepping down until age 90, when she began to have health problems, Beth said.
Her faith inspired her, Beth said.
“She had the strongest faith of anyone I know,” she said. “She was always faithful and lived her life the best she could to be like Jesus Christ. She was a devoted Catholic.”
In 2012, Mrs. Mattingly was recognized by the Archdiocese of St. Louis for her “Unconditional Dedication.”
Her daughter attributed Mrs. Mattingly’s long and healthy life to hard work, clean living and a healthy diet.
“Sometimes I think God kept her living until she was done with her work here,” Beth said.
As her friends and family got older, Mrs. Mattingly helped them navigate the obstacles of age.
“She would do anything for anybody, but she never wanted anyone to take care of her,” Beth said. “She loved her independence.”
About five years ago, the family noticed that Mrs. Mattingly was having trouble with her speech. Then, there was a fall at the grocery story. A neurologist determined she had supranuclear palsy, a progressive brain disorder. Daughter Terri Mattingly moved in to help with cooking and cleaning and Mrs. Mattingly had to give up supervising Annie’s Closet.
“She still liked to fold clothes, and she did until she could no longer do it,” Beth said.
As death came near, Mrs. Mattingly’s large extended family came from everywhere to visit her. She died peacefully in her sleep on Feb. 13, 2016.
As a last act of generosity, she donated her body to science, Beth said.
“Life Story,” posted each Saturday on Leader Publications’ website, focuses on one individual’s impact on his or her community.