Life Tributes Anne Larsen Fletcher
November 26, 2020
SAN DIEGO — On Thanksgiving night, November 26th, our beloved wife, mother, and grandmother, Anne Larsen Fletcher, (known as ‘FaFi’ to most), passed away from complications of Lung Cancer. She had been diagnosed almost four years earlier and had been holding her own, thanks to both Immunotherapy Clinical Trials and chemotherapy treatments, but the cancer finally took over, and she lost her battle.
Anne was born in a small town called Stavern in Southern Norway. Shortly after her 10th birthday, her Dad, Lars Larsen, and her Mom, Liv Larsen, decided to immigrate to California, so they packed up the kids, brother Jan, 8, and sister Trude, 1 1/2, and immigrated to Southern California. They settled in Laguna Beach briefly, then moved to Costa Mesa. Anne attended and graduated from Costa Mesa High School and practiced Nursing in Costa Mesa for ten years.In her late twenties she moved to San Diego, where she met her future husband Robert C. “Bob” Fletcher.
They fell in love and were married in February of 1978.
Bob was owner and Captain of a 65-foot Charterboat called the Cat Special, and after their honeymoon in Mazatlan, they returned to the business. Anne assumed shoreside duties while Bob was on the boat, and during the next four years, they had two boys, Robert Jr., and Nicholas.
Fast forward to 1983, Bob had a unique opportunity when Gov. George Deukmejian appointed him to the job of Deputy Director of the CA Dept. of Fish & Game. Anne and Bob packed up kids and dogs, sold their house and the Charter business, and moved to Sacramento. Through it all, Anne was loving, supportive, and positive as we got used to a totally new environment. Anne raised two busy, headstrong boys while making a lovely home for the Fletcher family in Fair Oaks, just east of Sacramento.
Fast forward again to 1989, when Bob was offered the presidency of the Sportfishing Association of California (SAC), a political non-profit organization representing the commercial passenger sportfishing industry. They returned to their much loved San Diego and spent the next twenty years representing the fleet. Anne was very active physically during those years back in San Diego and would go to Pilates classes three to four days a week. She also loved to ride bikes with girlfriends and ride stand-up paddleboards and kayaks — all this while raising two boys while working as Office Manager for SAC.
Anne still had numerous cousins in Norway. She and Bob made several trips to Norway and traveled around the beautiful country, seeing relatives and enjoying the great cuisine and laughing together, with Anne often switching over to Norwegian. She was fluent in the language, and she would occasionally spend an hour talking Norwegian to cousins on the phone calling from Norway.
Bob and Anne both retired in 2009 and spent some wonderful years traveling in their RV around the northwest and down through Wyoming, Utah, and other western states with their dear friends John and Janet Buchholz.
Anne is survived by husband Bob, her brother Jan Larsen, sister Trude Jackson, son Rob Fletcher Jr., his wife Cindy, and their three children, Bradon, 11, Greyson, 8, and Kailah, 5, and her son Nicholas Fletcher, his wife Christiane and their young son Cameron.
She wanted no service and asked that all donations in her name be directed to Hubbs Sea World Research Institute or the San Diego Chapter of the American Cancer Society. Rest In Peace FaFi.