Beloved neighborhood activist Daisy Fann dies at 93

Everybody who knew Daisy Fann called her Momma Daisy.

“She claimed everybody as her own, no matter if you were Black, white," Montgomery City Councilor Julie Beard said. "She loved you, and you always felt welcomed in her home."

Fann, 93, died Monday. Her funeral will be at 11 a.m. March 30 at the Lighthouse Baptist Church.

Her longtime caregiver and daughter-in-law, Dianne Fann, said she was active in the community and liked to help people.

Fann came to Montgomery from Virginia, where she was a teacher for 35 years. But Montgomery later became her adopted hometown. As a decades-long advocate for North Pass in Montgomery, she was named a Community Hero by the Montgomery Advertiser in September 2021.

More: Daisy Fann Community Hero Community Hero: At 91, Daisy Fann is still fighting for her north Montgomery neighborhood

Beard called Fann the matriarch of the North Pass community. “She just wanted to make sure that North Pass was taken care of. That was her top priority," Beard said.

Former Mayor Todd Strange agreed.

"The devotion to her community is what makes Montgomery a better place and is an example of how doing small things great makes a difference," Strange said about Fann.

Clare Johnson met Fann in 2012 when Johnson was working with the city to better Montgomery's neighborhoods.

“She just kind of knew how to mother us all," Johnson said.

Beard called her feisty, witty and sharp as a tack. “You don’t find another Daisy Fann," Beard said.

One of her many claimed children was her neighbor, Edward Edwards.

“Well Mrs. Fann was a very sweet person, and when I first met her she was so fine, and I really came to claim her as my mother," Edwards said.

Edwards said everyone in the neighborhood loved her, especially the children.

“They always thought she was a lovely person, and the right person for this neighborhood. We really going to miss her... all the people in this neighborhood going to miss her," Edwards said.

Alex Gladden is the Montgomery Advertiser's public safety reporter. She can be reached at agladden@gannett.com or on Twitter @gladlyalex.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Beloved neighborhood activist Daisy Fann dies at 93