ANDERSON, Agnes Mattie

Arizona Daily Sun, Flagstaff, AZ Monday, June 21, 2004 Agnes Mattie Switzer Anderson, 97, died Saturday, June 12, 2004. She was born Aug. 18, 1906, into a Flagstaff pioneering family. Her father, William Howard Switzer, arrived in the area at the age of 14 with his parents, who homesteaded in Switzer Canyon. Her mother, Nettie, daughter of William and Maria Lockwood, came with her parents in 1886. The Lockwoods were local sheep ranchers, while her father tried his hand at various businesses, including one on the Navajo Nation, eventually settling into a tack and harness store which became Switzer's Hardware. She attended Emerson school with her siblings and was one of the 13 members of the first graduating class of Flagstaff High School in 1924. In her youth she had played basketball and she was fond of saying that she was the "shorty" on the team that traveled by train to such far-away places as Winslow. She was even inducted into the Flagstaff High School basketball "hall of fame." She received a teaching certificate from Northern Arizona University, which was at the time known simply as "the normal school." Instead of teaching, she worked for a time as court reporter and as a bookkeeper and secretary at Switzer's Hardware and at Central Commercial Company and Arizona Grocery, located in the building at 24 S. Beaver St., which later became her own family business. She was married to Chester C. Anderson on May l6, 1937, and they began the 67- year adventure that was their marriage. They worked together in the formation of their own business, Northern Arizona Warehouse, at the Beaver Street address in 1941, and 15 years later on the addition of Anderson's Trading Co., which became a center for saddlery, ranch and garden supplies, livestock trading, and Native American goods. She was intensely loyal to her family and shared her husband's every interest. They traveled extensively in various countries, but just as thoroughly explored the wonders of the northern Arizona countryside. In later years, even into her 90s, she loved driving around the woods with her husband and was usually the first one to spot an elk or a deer. She was a member of Daughters of the American Revolution and the Eastern Star, and was also a member of the original Board of Trustees of the Flagstaff Community Hospital. During World War II she served as secretary of the Ration Board. She loved poetry and music, and had enjoyed doing creative things such as needlepoint and making hooked rugs. Mrs. Anderson is survived by her husband, Chester "Chet" Anderson; son Richard Anderson and his wife, Sandy; two grandsons; and several nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her daughter, Jane Anderson Gardner and by all of her siblings, except for Ruth Mary Griffin, of the village of Oak Creek. Funeral services were June 17. Interment will be Thursday at 1 p.m. in Citizens Cemetery, Flagstaff.