Annette Powers

Annette Anastasia “Toni” Powers, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, stained-glass artist and community fixture in northeastern San Antonio, Garden Ridge and Schertz, died August 19. She was 89.

Toni and husband retired Air Force Lt. Col. Frank Powers of Schertz first came to San Antonio in 1976, to Garden Ridge in 1992, and Schertz in 2013.

She was born Annette Anastasia Baciow, in Detroit, Jan. 16, 1933, to Ukrainian immigrant parents, Andrew and Maria Baciow.

Their Detroit neighborhood was an Eastern European melting pot. Relatives, neighbors and friends would gather at her house for raucous multi-lingual feasts. Sometimes young Toni and high school friends would sneak out and take the bus to downtown Detroit — anecdotal of a rebellious streak, which she later would regale to her blushing children or grandchildren.

She and Frank met at Michigan State College. They married in Dearborn, Michigan, on March 26, 1954.

Frank served a career in the Air Force, producing a life together of travel adventures, living in Michigan, Germany, Colorado, Panama, California, North Dakota, Ohio, and finally San Antonio.

They raised three sons.

Toni began her decades-long determination for a college education at Wayne State College and then Michigan State. She studied in colleges in Colorado, Panama, Ohio, and Texas, before completing her bachelor’s degree at UTSA in 1980.

She worked as an inventory accountant, schoolteacher, manager at St. Mary’s University, bankruptcy representative for Sears, and area manager for Joske’s. She volunteered as a Comal County elections judge and at the Garden Ridge Library.

Toni and Frank showered all with love, help and generosity. They frequently opened their home to relatives or friends needing somewhere to live.

Toni loved to visit family, care for grandchildren, take cruises, attend concerts and plays, dine out, swim at the YMCA, and serve in women’s clubs. She kept her homes filled with houseplants and her yards with songbirds flocking to birdfeeders and baths. She loved her dogs.

Late in life she found her artistic calling: stained glass. To know Toni well was to have her stained-glass gifts hanging in windows. Her pieces also were popular in Frank’s Lion’s Club charity auctions.

She is survived by husband Frank; son and daughter-in-law Scott and Connie Powers of Florida; son and daughter-in-law Mark and Belinda Powers of Virginia; daughter-in-law Sharon Powers of Ohio; and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by son Frank Powers Jr.

A memorial service is set for Wednesday, August 24, at 2 p.m. at the Schertz United Methodist Church in Schertz. A reception will follow at the church.