{"id":2441735,"date":"2019-03-14T17:44:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T23:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/aspen-remembers-annie-teague\/"},"modified":"2019-03-14T17:44:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-14T23:44:00","slug":"aspen-remembers-annie-teague","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-remembers-annie-teague\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen remembers Annie Teague"},"content":{"rendered":"
Annie Teague in Anguilla in 2016.<\/strong>
Courtesy photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Annie Teague, a beloved, longtime Aspen local and teacher, died peacefully inside her mountain cabin up Lenado on Saturday. She was 72.<\/p>\n

A selfless free spirit, Annie loved to teach, dance, garden, be barefoot \u2014 \u201cespecially in the mud\u201d \u2014 and ride motorcycles, said Annie\u2019s children, August and Emily Teague.<\/p>\n

The latter part of this portrayal is from Annie\u2019s application to teach kindergarten in 1970 at Aspen Community School, where she impacted thousands of children\u2019s lives throughout the course of her nearly 50-year tenure.<\/p>\n

Growing up as the second-oldest child among 10 siblings largely shaped Annie as a person and, ultimately, her trajectory, Emily said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was always taking care of other people and nurturing her siblings,\u201d she said, \u201cand very much had that maternal instinct, helping her siblings learn and grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Annie was born in Boston, but grew up between Hamilton, Massachussets, and Matunuck, Rhode Island.<\/p>\n

While her siblings stayed on the East Coast, Annie \u201cwas drawn to the wildness and ruggedness\u201d of the West, Emily said. \u201cShe was incredibly adventurous and definitely carved her own path,\u201d driving her Volkswagen across the country headed to the mountains.<\/p>\n

Annie started teaching at Aspen Community School upon its opening in 1970, said Polly Whitcomb, a founding member of the community school who became one of Annie\u2019s closest friends.<\/p>\n

For many in the valley, Annie\u2019s role and influence at Aspen Community School is as much a part of her legacy as anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was the heart of the school,\u201d Whitcomb said.<\/p>\n

August Teague said the family often joked that \u201cshe was the hardest-working kindergarten teacher around,\u201d as she regularly would wake up at 6 a.m. to head to the school\u2019s Woody Creek campus and not return home to Lenado until 10 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe joked that it was kind of crazy, but for her, it wasn\u2019t,\u201d August said. \u201cShe wanted to make sure that every day was going to be special and unique for her kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

An early recipient of the Dick Butera Distinguished Teacher Award (now known as the Kellie Schenck Award), Annie was known for her individualized teaching style that tailored to each student\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n

In an Aspen Times letter to the editor in 2005 after Annie won the prestigious local teaching award, Liz Meador of Glenwood Springs wrote: \u201cTeague is a master teacher in the progressive tradition who embodies the term \u2018child-centered education.\u2019 \u2026 I\u2019ve never met a teacher who could design individualized, personalized learning experiences for students the way Annie can.\u201d<\/p>\n

August, who also was a student of Annie\u2019s, echoed: \u201cShe recognized that each child is different in terms of how they learn and how they interact, and figured out how to motivate, ignite, relate to each and every one of those kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Annie also had a special way of using the earth, animals and nature \u201cto bring the classroom to life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

During Annie\u2019s early years in Aspen, she rode her Norwegian fjord pony, Hunka Munka, from her home in Woody Creek to the community school.<\/p>\n

Part of her reason for commuting by horse, Emily said, was because her students loved it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnnie embodied so much of what we value in this valley, of being part of nature and celebrating our environment and children and all that we hold dear,\u201d Whitcomb said. \u201cShe was just meant to be in this valley.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before settling into her treasured mountain home in Lenado, Annie and her ex-husband, Harry Teague, spent their first few summers camping.<\/p>\n

Harry, an architect in the valley, and Annie were married about 25 years.<\/p>\n

Although Annie was a \u201cgentle and beautiful\u201d soul, Harry said, she also was tough.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was full of enthusiasm and adventure and didn\u2019t mind that kind of living,\u201d Harry said. \u201cIt was really, really rough, and she was game for all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

After building their home together in Lenado, the two would host \u201cunforgettable\u201d dinner parties with other colorful characters, Harry said.<\/p>\n

Annie also loved costume parties or any excuse to sport an eclectic ensemble.<\/p>\n

In fact, she didn\u2019t need an excuse, Harry said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe always had the most wonderful, crazy outfits, and it didn\u2019t take much to get her to put them on \u2014 a (native) headdress, a hat from an Amazonian tribe, things likes that \u2014 she would wear those in unlikely situations, (like) cross-country skiing,\u201d Harry said. \u201cA lot of people would never put on stuff like that, but she was always ready to put on this crazy hat made of bird feathers or beautiful embroidered pajamas.\u201d<\/p>\n

erobbie@aspentimes.com<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Annie Teague in Anguilla in 2016.Courtesy photo Annie Teague, a beloved, longtime Aspen local and teacher, died peacefully inside her mountain cabin up Lenado on Saturday. She was 72. A selfless free spirit, Annie loved to teach, dance, garden, be barefoot \u2014 \u201cespecially in the mud\u201d \u2014 and ride motorcycles, said Annie\u2019s children, August and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2441735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 09:36:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2441735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2441735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2441735\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2441735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2441735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2441735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}