Anna-Lore Moratz, 83, passed away on Friday, February 8, 2019 among family and friends at the Marquette Pavilion Health Center, Indianapolis, Indiana. She was born on June 23, 1935 in Darmstadt, Germany to Wilhelm and Mathilde (Freund) Wagner.

Anna grew up in Darmstadt, attended school in Neumuenster and saw her formative years impacted by the vast political upheaval taking place in Germany in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. These events would shape her beliefs, her expansive career and, most importantly, her life’s mission as loving wife and mother. After the death of her father in WWII, Anna emerged from these troubled times as a thoughtful, passionate, driven, artistic and accomplished young woman determined to make a life for herself in a new land of opportunity, Brazil.

In Brazil, she worked as an Executive Assistant at Mercedes-Benz, where she met a young engineer named Hermann Moratz who, himself, had sought out his own new-life journey after serving in the Luftwaffe during WWII, working at hard labor in a Russian POW camp and then escaping to the American lines and eventual freedom. This story and countless others – including Anna and Hermann’s subsequent engagement, wedding in Brazil and their momentous move to America – are chronicled in rich detail in Hermann’s memoirs:And Only The Horses Wore No Uniforms, published in 2007. Anna served as translator, transcriptionist and editor for the book.

Anna and Hermann were married in Brazil on March 24, 1956 and enjoyed 63 happy years together. They came to America in 1957 aboard the steamer Montevideo Maru, where Anna began working in Los Angeles as an Administrative Assistant for Dun & Bradstreet. Son William Christopher was followed by daughter Karen as the young family found purchase in America. The family moved from California to Mississippi to Germany to Massachusetts to Indiana as Hermann’s career as an in-demand engineer grew and took them to new places and opportunity. The family finally settled in Ithaca, NY where Anna began a second career as Administrator to the Dean of Graduate Studies at Cornell University. She retired from Cornell in 1990 and was proud to have retained library and swimming pool privileges until the day she died.

Anna was a choral singer, a great cook, an avid reader, a lifelong budding illustrator, a tenacious Scrabble player, she loved old movies and was particularly fond of classical music and The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Most of all, her entire life, she was a loving wife and a champion of her children’s lives and loves.

Anna was preceded in death by her parents as well as by Hermann in 2017. The last year of her life was spent at Marquette Independent and Assisted Living, Indianapolis, in the care of her surviving children Karen Evans Moratz of Indianapolis, Indiana, William Christopher Moratz of Gardiner, NY and their families: “favorite” son-in-law George Evans, “favorite” daughter-in-law Hatti Langsford and William and Hatti’s daughter Emma. Anna is also survived by her brother Charlie of Wedel, Germany, his wife Traudl and nephew Frank as well as a loved extended family of cousins and other relatives, all still living in Germany.

The family wishes to thank Betty Crosby, Senior Home Companions and Sabrina Bishop, Health at Home, who were with Anna in her final days, right up to her rejoining the infinite universe as beauty, love, energy and joy.

A celebration of life will be held in Ithaca, NY, in May 2019. Details to be announced.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations of clothing, furniture and other life-goods to Thrifty Threads, 1501 W 86th St, Indianapolis, IN 46260. Memorial donations can also be remitted, online, to The Julian Center,juliancenter.org.