Anna DeCosta Hunter

Anna DeCosta Hunter, a resident of Vantage House, died in Columbia, Maryland on February 3, 2012. The daughter of Benjamin and Gertrude Cook DeCosta, she was born on September 27, 1915, in Charleston, South Carolina. When she was eight years old, she moved with her family to New York. In 1933, Anna married Dr. George W. Hunter, a graduate of Lincoln University and professor of chemistry at Hampton University in Virginia. After the birth of their two children, Georgianna and George, Jr., she completed a bachelor's degree in home economics at Hampton and her husband earned a doctorate from Pennsylvania State University.

The Hunters moved to Orangeburg, South Carolina in 1948, when George joined the faculty of South Carolina State College as Chairman of the Chemistry Department and Anna became a home demonstration agent for the Department of Agriculture, while completing a master's degree in education. The family lived on the college campus before buying a home, and Anna gained a reputation as a gifted homemaker, astute investor, and family historian. Sitting in her study, surrounded by ancestors' portraits, she would recount stories about her grandmother Anna, trips to visit maternal relatives, and working in her father's office. In the 1950s, the Hunters moved to Greensboro, North Carolina but returned to Orangeburg when George became Dean of Arts and Sciences at State College and Anna resumed work as a demonstration agent.

The couple took several cruises and traveled to Germany, Panama, and other places where the Prices--their daughter, her military husband, and their four children--were stationed. Anna Hunter was also very active in her community. A communicant of Orangeburg's Trinity Methodist Church, she was a member of the Links and Girlfriends, and served as president of Alpha Tau Sigma Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority from 1953 to 1954. She was also president of the Sunlight Club, an organization that provided medicine, paid utility bills, and assisted the needy. As her granddaughter recalled, she was a giving person. "If some people wanted to improve their lives and were willing to put in the work, she was there to support them 100%."

Like her parents, Anna opened her home to family members with warmth and generosity. When Hurricane Hugo battered the South Carolina coast in September 1989, for example, she invited her Charleston cousins to take refuge in her Orangeburg home. In a life that spanned ninety-six years, Anna Hunter was privileged to know eight generations of her family, extending from her great-grandmother through her own great-great-grandchildren. At a DeCosta family reunion, hosted by her son in Columbia, Maryland, in 1983, Anna and George celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Her husband died in 1993, after sixty years of marriage, and Anna moved to Columbia a few years later to be near her son and daughter, Georgianna "Judy" H. Price, who died in 2006.

She is survived by her son, George W. Hunter, Jr.; brother, Charles W. DeCosta (Carmen); grandchildren Joseph W. Hunter (Adrian), Terri Ann Royster, George W. Hunter, III (Jennifer), Katherine Price Dukes (Benny), James Anthony Price (Donna), William DeCosta Price (Soney), and Robert Edward Price (Barbara); eighteen great-grandchildren, and five great-great-grandchildren.

The viewing will take place at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, February 11, 2012 at Witzke Funeral Home, Inc. at 5555 Twin Knolls Rd., Columbia MD 21045, followed by the funeral at 1:00. A graveside service and burial will be on Thursday, February 16 at Belleville Cemetery in Orangeburg.

The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Sunlight Club, 302 Treadwell St., Orangeburg, SC 29115.