PRESENTED BY: 
DORIS 0. PETTIGREW 103 SE BERKSHIRE WAY 
LAWTON, OK 73501 1999 
 
ANNE ELIZABETH HEATH 
SECOND CONNECTIONAL PRESIDENT OF THE 
WOMEN'S MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF THE 
AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 
 
 The only child of James and Bertha Williams was born in Aucilla, GA. Her parents moved to Florida when she was six months old. Her mother died when she was two years old. Her father took her to South Carolina; he died when she was nine. She then returned to Florida to her maternal grandparents. Mrs. Rose Lee Asia took Anne to live with her and the girl attended the public school of Palatka, Florida 
Because of her industrious and dedicated nature, Anne followed a rigid schedule in school and at home, and was able to take the State Board Examination. As soon as she received her Certificate she began to teach. 
She met and married Rev. Julius J. Heath who served the A.M.E. church in Florida. One daughter was born to this union, Mrs. Rubye H. Davis Wysinger. 
Mrs. Heath served as a local society missionary president and for nine years was the President of the Missionary Department of the State of Florida (Episcopal president) and served as second vice president of the Women's Home and Foreign Missionary Society. She was a member of the Connectional Missionary Board. 
In 1944 when the Women's Mite Missionary Society and the Women's Home & Foreign were united she was elected First Vice President. At the death of Mrs. Lucy Hughes, Mrs. Heath 
 
She had the distinction of working with both 
 
societies, and is credited with establishing a sepa- 
 
rate connectional Young People's Department. She 
 
appointed Alma A. Polk as Connectional General 
 
Secretary of the Young People's Department. 
 
She presided over the following 
 
Quadrennial Conventions: 
 
1947 New Orleans, La. 
 
1959 Detroit, Mi. 
 
1951 Memphis, Tn 
 
1963 St. Louis, Mo. 
 
1955 Washington, D.C. 
 
1967 Pittsburgh, Pa. 
 
During her administrations she visited the 
 
Fourteenth, Fifteenth, Seventeenth and Eighteenth 
 
Episcopal Districts. she made several visits to the 
 
Sixteenth. 
 
Delegate to the First Assembly of the World 
 
Council of Churches, Amsterdam, Holland; World 
 
Federation Methodist Women, Oslo, Norway; cor- 
 
responding secretary Methodist Women, National 
 
Council of Churches. Served as President 
 
1947~ 1971 of the W.M.S. 
 
Mrs. Heath died in 1974, however her 
 
memory of Missions in Action is a legacy to all 
 
A.M.E. Church Women. 
 
References: 
 
A History of the W.M.S. of the A.M.E. church 
 
1874-1987. Octavia W. Dandridge, 
 
Connectional Historiographer 
 
One Hundred Years of Victorious Service Verdelle Jennings Johnston, Connectional Historiographer