"Charlie" Charline Ann Hickman; August 23, 1941 – October 14, 2020

Most everyone called her "Charlie". A handful of friends, her brothers, and family called her "Ann, Annie, or Aunt Annie". This beautiful woman graduated from Broken Arrow in 1959. She was a hard-working woman who retired from Boeing after about 30+ years. She liked telling about her small yet important role she had in the manufacturing of parts made and used in the aerospace industry building airliners and other aircrafts. One of her biggest bragging points was talking about the "Moon Buggy" or Lunar Roving Vehicle that landed on the moon. She thought it was really cool her hands literally touched a part or piece of something built that flew into space, landed, and roamed on the surface of the moon.
After retiring from Boeing, she took advantage of the extra time to enjoy and be a bigger part of horseracing. She'd say she loved watching the ponies ride like the wind; listen for their deep breathes and hear their hooves hit the ground like thunder. Like most people caught up in horseracing, it made her blood pump with every stride as all the ponies crossed the finish line. She dedicated a lot of her time, hard-earned money, her heart, and soul to the ponies and she stayed with it to the end in order to cheer her friends and their ponies across the finish line. She did it clear up to this last season this year.
Of course we all know about her passion and love for all her horses through the years and some of you were a big part of many adventures; adventures on and off horses actually. Charlie sure sat pretty in a saddle. She was one heck of a barrel racer back in the 60s and in early 70s. She didn't brag about winning buckles or saddles but I heard she did win the hearts of many a cowboy and a few who weren't cowboys. Back then she didn't settle because she and her cowgirls were too eager to ride to the next rodeo. She was a country girl, a cowgirl, a lover of the outdoors and all things nature. Cowboy boots and jeans weren't the things she wore. She could "dress to the nines" and in some of her pictures she looks like a model. She was an absolute real knockout.
I don't ever remember hearing about or knowing of a time in her life she didn't have an "ark", so to speak, full of animals. I mean animals flocked to her like she was Noah himself with a big boat full of feed. Thanks goodness, they didn't come in pairs but she'd have taken them in just the same. She spent the last 3 ½ years feeding an abandoned dog she named Gipsy. Every single night, she feed that poor dog on the side of the road come rain, snow, heat or sleet. Gipsy was too skittish for her to pet but she loved that poor 'ol lonely dog.
Through the years she's had an ornery cute raccoon, Rommel that loved to bite your toes while you slept and he was a crack-shot throwing pecans smack-dab at the back of your head. There was a beautiful show pigeon who adopted her; she had pigs (her least favorite), goats, cows, and we can't forget her miniature horses. She absolutely adored that miniature stud horse.
A few years back, she found and showed me some pictures with her, Bobby (her big bro, my dad) and Billie (her little bro) with some of their odd little critters they raised when they were little kids. One picture in particular, I hope to find again, is of 2 black crows, a skunk, and another little varmint (a rabbit maybe) all eating from the same feed pan.
Another thing she did back around the 80s was she and one of her dogs went to school, got trained, and earned their license to go visit the "old folks' homes" to let the old folks pet the dogs in hopes of making them smile and feel better.
We all know that her dogs weren't any less spoiled than some peoples' kids. This is no lie. Her Living Will stipulates that her dogs will be provided for and treated in the manner in which they are accustomed to: "Inside with AC in the summer and heat in the winter, and given bowls of ice cream". A lot of us will probably be spelling out the words "ice cream" from now on because you couldn't say the words out load, you had to spell i-c-e c-r-e-a-m, or the dogs would go berserk.
When it wasn't too hot or cold, she liked nothing better than to sit either in her barn or out in her pack pasture on an old upside-down water trough petting and loving on her horses. She spent a lot of time on her front porch with her girls, Sierra and Sage; who by the way, crossed the rainbow bridge just days after Annie crossed.
She told me countless endearing and hilarious stories about her and her mama Charlene, and the silly things they did together. I also heard about adventurous stories and several escapades about her and several of you, her friends, of how you all survived, I mean enjoyed, them all!
They say God bestows talents on special people. These talent are His gifts to them and us. He sure gifted her with a beautiful talent of being a stained glass artist. The stained glass pieces she picked out to buy for her projects were unique, colorful, and full of movement even before she cut them to place into the frame. A lot of her finished projects seemed to come alive in some ways telling a story or taking you to a faraway peaceful place to daydream.
Please don't think I'm being disrespectful for not naming those gone before her or not naming family left behind. I know in my heart she wouldn't have wanted this to end on a sad or sorrowful note.
So, I'll close with this: To all her girlfriends out there, here, and above, (you men will smirk at this too) let us take a moment of silence, a sincere quiet moment to close our eyes, remember, and picture one of her very VERY favorite cowboys. A man who buckled her knees when he spoke with that deep sexy voice and crooked smile. One of the most handsome cowboys she ever laid eyes on, she said. SAM ELLIOTT! Oh yeah…we hear you snickering up there!
We'll see that beautiful smile of yours again but will miss you deeply until then.

Please look for her memorial page on Facebook. "Charlie" Charline "Annie" Hickman Anderson. Share stories and pictures for everyone to enjoy. Because of the pandemic and the fact she didn't like the dreary cold of winter; the family has decided to scatter her ashes in the spring of 2021. That information will be posted on her memorial page when the time nears.