But Anne's life was not free of struggle. She says quite frankly that alcohol caused most of her troubles, which she does not mind talking about since it might help someone else.

She was born in Los Angeles in 1917. Her father died when she was only nine. Since she was an only child, it was her mother and she against the world.

In her teens she says she played with three different small girl groups with five or six members in each one. All three broke up, but she got some of them together, and at 18, led the band.

She and her mother took a trip to Big Bear Lake, talked to the hotel owner, and wrangled a three-day tryout for the 10-member band. The owner liked them and hired them to play for dances all summer. They were paid room and board and $30 a month. They played five summers, and picked up odd jobs during the winters.

Anne met the man who became her first husband, married, and left the band. Ina Rae Hutton came to town, looked up the band, and took all the members but Anne to play on television. She says, "I was ready to shoot myself."

Her husband was called into the service, so she told him she was going back into the music business. He said, "No!"

She said, "Then I'm going to join the Marines." He said no to that too, finally agreeing to her return to music.

She worked in a trio at the Mission Inn in Riverside. She says it was a lot of fun with plenty of service men around. The hardest part was staying sober.

When her husband returned, they divorced and Anne moved to Palm Springs. Anne never had any children, since a miscarriage rendered her unable to get pregnant again. She worked in a music store and picked up playing jobs.

She met her next husband who was not a musician. When they married, she says they were both drinking heavily, and the marriage didn't last long.

She moved to Lake Tahoe, resuming the heavy drinking. She ended up in a hospital for alcoholism in Reno. There she met someone who inspired her to move to Phoenix. By the grace of God, she says, she landed in Casa de Amigas in Phoenix, a rehab for alcoholic women. Luckily, she says, she stayed there 16 years, eventually becoming a housemother. She played sax at the Casa de Amigas for dances and parties.

An interlude in Hawaii occurred where she went with an acquaintance. She got up a band of 16 senior citizens and played all over the islands in hospices, etc. for five years.

She returned to Phoenix, where she discovered the Westward Ho.

She ran into her Palm Springs husband who now lived in Bakersfield, and ever since then, has gone to Laughlin with him every two or three months. In the meantime she played sax, accompanied by an organist, for dances and parties at the Westward Ho for seven years. Anne can no longer play the sax because of arthritis in her hands. She says that not playing music is like losing her right arm.

Anne's sweet music has been missed, but I am glad I had the privilege of hearing her play. Come say hello to her at "Annie's Place" in the patio.