Born in Detroit, Michigan, to Booker and Mary Stewart (double check), as one of four children, Ann came to Shreveport to live with an aunt and uncle, Mamie and Clemmie Love. They gave her, she says, "a normal childhood." At 14 she became an activist in the civil rights movement. Her aunt, she claims, was also was very active. Ann recalls not being allowed to sit on the main floor of movie theaters. African-Americans, relegated to the balcony, often tossed popcorn down on the white patrons below. She participated at a sit-in at the cafe at Woolworth's, and was arrested and taken to jail. She was placed briefly in a cell, then taken to a girl's reformatory where her uncle came for her before the next day. Ann studied voice at Bishop College on a music scholarship, then moved to California where she taught for 25 years, mainly in elementary school. Her experience with the civil rights movement "made me a stronger person," she says. "I understood that whatever you believe in, you should stand up for it."