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Ann Taylor Martin, born February 20, 1950, a resident of Albuquerque since 1984, passed away Thursday, April 21, 2011, age 61, after a long illness. She is survived by her two sons, Benjamin Smith and Taylor Smith; her partner of 16 years, Lisa Littlefield; two brothers, Thomas Martin of Jamaica Plain, Mass., and Joel Martin of South Portland, Maine; and a sister, Rebecca Martin Evarts of Yarmouth, Maine. She attended the Buckingham School in Cambridge, Mass., and graduated in 1967 from The Emma Willard School in Troy, New York. In 1971, she received a B.A. in English from Middlebury College. She loved theater, and her beautiful singing voice made her the star of several productions in school and college. An early calling to be a healer was never fully satisfied until she obtained a nursing degree from Vermont College, where she graduated summa cum laude in 1976. Ann was a highly accomplished critical care and emergency room nurse. During a nursing career that spanned three decades, she worked with the first heart transplant patients in New Mexico at Presbyterian Hospital. She also helped run the emergency room at Kaseman Hospital many nights with a minimum of staff and became nationally certified in Emergency Nursing. Besides being a natural healer, Ann's other true calling was teaching and training new nurses. In 2005, she was awarded Distinguished Nurse Preceptor at University Hospital. In the Medical ICU there, Ann played a key role in helping her unit win the Beacon Award in 2009. Ann was also a certified bereavement counselor, and this training was much valued by the families of critically-ill and dying patients. Ann had a huge heart and a very generous spirit. She will be missed by the nursing and medical community, by her family, and by all who had contact with her. There is an Ann Martin memorial Facebook page where plans and details of an event to be held in her memory in August will be announced.
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