Ann Blocker Fleming Deagon

Deagon—Ann Blocker Fleming Deagon, 94, on June 24, 2024, at the home of her daughter Andrea in Wilmington, N.C. Ann was born January 19, 1930, to Robert Fulton Fleming Jr. and Alice Turpin Webb Fleming in Birmingham, Ala. She had one younger sister. Her childhood was marked by the Great Depression, which saw her father losing his job. She described her father as a member of the working class and her mother as from the aristocracy. She identified more with her father and worked in his grocery store as a butcher from the time she was 13 years old. Many African American customers came to the store. How they were treated by society made a lasting impression on her.

Ann married Donald David Deagon, an actor and director, on June 29, 1951, in Birmingham. He headed the Drama Department at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C., from 1956 until his death in 1985. Ann and Donald had two daughters, Andrea and Ellen. The Deagons built a post-and-beam home near the Guilford College campus. They opened their home to students and friends who shared their interests or needed their encouragement and help. This included housing the first student of color who would integrate the campus in 1962.

Ann was the first in her family since the Civil War to graduate from college. She received her bachelor’s degree from Birmingham–Southern College in 1950 and a master’s degree in 1951 and doctorate in classical studies in 1954 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ann began her teaching career at Furman University in Greenville, S.C., where she taught from 1954 to 1956. In 1956, she and Donald joined the Guilford College faculty where she would have a long and distinguished career. She taught classical languages, literature, and history. After beginning a writing career in the 1970s, Ann served as a writer-in-residence and taught poetry and fiction workshops. She retired from Guilford College as Hege Professor of Humanities in 1992.

Ann’s books include several collections of poems, short stories, and a novel. In addition, her work appeared in many journals and magazines. She edited The Guilford Review, directed Poetry Center Southeast at Guilford, and helped establish the North Carolina Writers’ Network, for which she provided critiques. She received a creative writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She taught overseas programs in Greece, Italy, and Great Britain, and served as visiting writer for universities, community groups, and art councils throughout the United States. After her retirement, Ann acted in community theater and film and enjoyed songwriting and performing, while continuing to be active in a number of writers’ organizations. Ann was described as brilliant, perceptive, uncompromising, provocative, and wildly creative. She almost always wore a Medusa necklace—a symbol of transformation.

Ann held memberships in the Academy of American Poets, the American Philological Association, the American Classical League, the Vergilian Society, the North Carolina Writers Conference, the Alabama State Poetry Society, the Alabama Writers’ Conclave, the Greensboro Writers Club, and Phi Beta Kappa.

The Deagons were longtime members of New Garden Meeting in Greensboro. Ann often performed poetry, a reading, or a song at the meeting’s talent shows. A few years ago, she presented at a First Day Forum. The parlor was packed with admirers.

Ann was predeceased by her husband, Donald David Deagon; sister, Alice Webb Fleming Lott Campbell; daughter, Ellen Lathrop Deagon Perry; and son-in-law, David Alan Zalph (Andrea’s husband).

She is survived by one daughter, Andrea Webb Deagon; three grandchildren; one great-grandchild; and her longtime friend and companion, Harold M. “Earl” Chilton.