Ann Preston (Ewert) Drennan

Ann Preston Drennan, age 87, passed away on 8/19/2021 at her beloved Craftsbury home, due to cancer.

She was born Ann Shelton Ewert June 17,1934 to the late Peter Harry and Mazy (Higgins) Ewert in Burlington, VT, where she grew up. When she was three her father died. Her late stepfather George Lafayette Preston adopted her. Ann graduated from Burlington High School and UVM, working as a nurse's aide for six years during this time. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BS in Education. She received her MS in Education from the University of Chicago where she completed the PHD course work but not the dissertation. 

She married Theodore Elsworth Hinckley with whom she had Jill Coleen Hinckley, now Jill Hinckley-Noble and Dale Thomas Hinckley, now D Thomas Hayes. She married the late Ralph William Hayes with whom she had William Ralph Hayes (deceased in infancy) and Benjamin Shelton Hayes. She was the widow of Henry Thomas Drennan. They were married for 29 years. For eight years after she was widowed, her much loved companion was the late Joseph Anthony Mangano of Berne, NY.

Ann worked as the Assistant Recorder at UVM and then for Admissions and Records, in addition to being a grader for the Classics department. She was the Administrative and Reference Librarian for the Education Library at the University of Chicago, and a Research Assistant in Reading and in Adult Education. She studied Adult Development and Aging under a US Public Health Fellowship. While studying at the University of Chicago she led a citizen-organized medical unit to care for injured protestors during the 1968 Democratic Convention. She also worked briefly for the Public Opinion Research Center. Later, at Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky, she served as program evaluator for a thirteen-state federal adult basic education program in Appalachia with a focus on promoting adult literacy. 

In 1974 she married Henry Drennan and moved to Washington, DC, where she lived on Capitol Hill and held several contract positions with the U.S. Department of Education, Catholic University, and the World Bank.  She also had temporary teaching positions at the University of Maryland and Wayne State.  During this time, she personally taught several illiterate adults to read while serving as director of Adult Basic Education, and also sponsored, hosted, and resettled six refugees from the wars in Southeast Asia.  She also once saved the life of a man who had been stabbed in a bar fight.

In 1982 she returned to Vermont and spent two years teaching 5th and 6th grade in a one-room elementary school in Walden, before joining the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in 1985.  She retired from the INS after 25 years of service at Derby, North Troy, Beebe Plain, and other border crossing stations.  She once apprehended four suspected terrorists single-handedly in the middle of the night and, although holding strongly anti-gun views, qualified on a pistol range every six months handily. She prided herself on being fair and knowing the rights of immigrants and refugees.

She loved to travel and made visits to Europe, Central America, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and all but a handful of U.S. States.  She also rescued more than 20 stray or unwanted dogs and cats during her lifetime.   

She is survived by her children Jill Hinckley-Noble, D Thomas Hayes, and Benjamin Hayes, grandchildren Flower Noble, Ezra Noble, Mazy Hayes, Emily Hayes, A. Thomas Hayes, and Caroline Hayes, and great-granddaughter Sula Noble Demers. Additionally, she is survived by her foster children Dan Hsu, Pasit Hsu, and Samsonite Hsu of Laos, Tuyet Nguyen and Kiet Le Nguyen of Vietnam. She is also survived by many foster grandchildren and great grandchildren, and is predeceased by her foster child John Rahn. 

Ann will be buried beside her mother, adoptive father, husband Henry Drennan, and infant son William in the Lake View Cemetery in Burlington, VT on Saturday 8/28/2021 at 11am.