Ann Kendrick Horan, 56, died peacefully on June 3, 2023, at the McClure Respite House in Colchester, Vt., from complications of colon cancer. She was born on May 22, 1967, in Cambridge, Mass., to Gail (Tidd) Kendrick and David Kendrick and lived most of her life in Austin, Texas, where her father was a professor of economics at the University of Texas, Austin, and her mother was a child psychologist. She graduated from Kirby Hall in Austin in 1985 and attended Wellesley College before graduating from the Plan II Honors Program at the University of Texas in Austin in 1990, with a bachelor of arts degree in English.
After graduation, she moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked at CNN and as a staff member of the Congressional Commission on Children. She met her husband, John Horan, MD, in Washington, D.C., who was completing his residency in urology at Georgetown University Medical Center. They moved to Austin, Texas, in 1991, where John joined the urology practice and where they were married in 1992 at All Saints Episcopal Church.
Ann was admitted to the counseling psychology program in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas in Austin in the fall of 1992, before she eventually transferred to the graduate program in architecture and historic preservation at the University of Texas in Austin in 1994. With her friend and business partner, Catherine (Holder) Prather, she spent the next several years happily buying, renovating and selling older residential properties in central Austin.
Ann and John bought the Covert House in the Hyde Park neighborhood in Austin, and, after she directed the renovation and restoration, it became their private home. In recognition of her work in preserving the Covert House, she won the Austin Heritage Society Award in 2001. In 2015, her husband joined the urology practice affiliated with the University of Vermont of Vermont Medical Group, and she spent the rest of her time between Montréal and Montpelier, Vt. She was diagnosed with colon cancer one year ago and was treated by the Medical and Radiation Oncology Departments at Central Vermont Medical Center.
She is survived by her husband, John Horan, MD; her daughters, Callan Horan and Amelia Horan; her father, David Kendrick; her brother, Colin Kendrick, and his wife, Allison (Oberle) Kendrick, and their children, Max and Syd Kendrick. She was predeceased by her mother, Gail Tidd Kendrick.
Ann loved studying buildings, design and architecture and was skilled in creating beautiful living spaces for her family. She also enjoyed traveling with her family throughout the U.S. and Europe, with trips to London, Paris and Biarritz being among her favorites. She grew attached to Colorado and particularly enjoyed spending time there in the summer months. She had a very generous spirit and passed that attribute to her daughters. Although she spent the majority of her life in Texas and missed the wide-open skies of that state, she grew to love the green, quiet spaces Vermont offered.
The family would like to thank Jesse Moore, MD, at the University of Vermont Medical Center for his surgical expertise, as well as the gracious, kind and compassionate nurses and staff at Central Vermont Medical Center. Additional thanks to the department of Palliative Care at Central Vermont Medical Center.
Memorial contributions may be made to the McClure Miller Respite House, 3113 Roosevelt Hwy., Colchester, VT, 05446.
This article appears in Jun 7-13, 2023.
Thank you for sharing Ann’s story! As a fellow Longhorn and Austinite, who lives in the Montpelier area, I was able to thoroughly appreciate her accomplishments. My mother just passed away, at a young age as well, and we will be having her service on campus. I wish your family the best! Y’all will be in my thoughts as I journey back to Texas to celebrate my mother’s life. Hook ’em!