CANFIELD - Anne Finnerty “Annie” James died on Sunday, April 10, at St. Elizabeth Health Center.
She was born on Nov. 19, 1952, in Youngstown, the daughter of George A. Finnerty Jr. and Sue Strother Finnerty.
Annie was a 1970 graduate of Cardinal Mooney High School. She was an artist, actress, painter, poet, writer and teacher of the arts. Annie played with many musicians over many years, starting out as a kid at The Gates of Eden Coffee House in Youngstown.
Annie married Bill Nagel in 1970, and moved to Columbus. Bill and Annie created Annie’s pride and joy, their son, William French Nagel in 1971.
Annie went on to perform as a single folk act in Columbus and throughout Ohio, and later at the Delaware Water Gap, and throughout Eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey in the 1970s. While performing in Youngstown in 1977, she met her husband, Carl James. Annie and Carl were friends and partners ever since.
While performing, both solo in a folk and blues performance and with many area and regional musicians in different combinations for her entire life, including the Kent State Folk Festival for many years and the Columbus Community Festival (Comfest), where she was recognized as a lifelong honored artist in 2001. In the late seventies Annie returned to acting where she started out in 1967 in Paint Your Wagon at the Youngstown Playhouse.
Annie returned as Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker, where she appeared opposite her lifelong friend, Kathy Appugliese at the Youngstown Playhouse and won the Arthur Award for Best Actress.
Annie was in over a hundred roles including a female version of the Bolingbrook in Shakespeare’s Richard II, Sally Talley in Talley’s Folly, Hannah Mae Bindler in A Couple of White Chicks, Daisy in Spokesong, Lusha in A Shayna Maidle, Lady Blue in Torch Song Trilogy, Phoebe in Romantic Comedy, The Poet in My name is Alice, Barbara in A Pack of Lies, Hannah Jelkes in Night of the Iguana, Freddie in The Club, Christine in The Moundbuilders, Dr. Emma Bruckner in Normal Heart, both Claree and Ouiser in Steel Magnolias, Rita in Educating Rita, Lillian in I Hate Hamlet, Helen in Ladyhouse Blues, Alice B. Toklas in Gertrude Stein and Her Companion, Susie in Wait Until Dark, Gertrude in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Mother Carrie Watts in Trip to Bountiful, where she appeared on stage with “adopted son” Khepri Polite, among many other roles in theatres and cafes. In 2005, Annie portrayed Sunny Jacobs in The Exonerated, inspiring her to continue with the Lucasville Five project that toured, bringing voice to the injustice of that shameful affair and capital punishment.
In addition to acting on stage and in film, including MGM’s All the Marblesand It Runs In the Family. Annie worked at Children’s Theatre of Younstown for many years where she acted in dozens of youth theatre productions and taught acting to hundreds of kids, some of whom perform today around the world.
Annie has directed such ambitious works as Children of a Lesser God, Torch Song Trilogy and many youth theatre productions.
Annie’s paintings in watercolor, oils, collage and on slate have been shown over the years and hang in many homes around the world. At the time of her death Annie was working on Annie’s Blue Book, a compilation of her paintings, poetry, songs and recordings.
Annie had many dogs and cats as members of her family over her lifetime.
Annie was preceded in death by her sister, Lucille; her father and mother; grandparents, Mary and Cotton Finnerty; aunt, Dorothy Bloom; uncle, Robert Finnerty; aunt, Virginia “Murph” Finnerty; Judge James French; Lucille Strother; her mother-in-law, Addie James; and her dear friends, Eddie Jobert, Sue Clark and Sam Cullum.
Annie leaves her husband, Carl James; sons, Will Nagel and Khepri Polite; her brothers and sisters, George Finnerty III, Mary Sue and Ron Annas, Beverly and Ed Goetz, Jim Finnerty, Jeannie and Ed Hanna, Landon Finnerty and Greg and Laurie Finnerty; her nephews, Shane Annas, Claire Annas, Miles Yetter, Jesse Annas, Thomas Lipinsky and Alexander Lipinsky; uncle, Tom Finnerty and uncle, Dr. John Buckley and Ann Buckley; aunt, Ann Finnerty; father-in-law, Gib James; sisters and brothers-in-law, Elizabeth and Steve Berberich and Mary James Lipinsky.
Annie had so many cousins they cannot be listed but she loved each and every one of them.
There will be calling hours at Fox Funeral Home, 4700 Market St., Youngstown, on Wednesday from 5 to 8 p.m. and a Mass at St. Patrick Church, Fr. Edward Noga celebrating, on Thursday, April 14th at 10 a.m.
Prayers will be at the funeral home at 9:30 a.m.
Material contributions were requested by Annie to be to Angels for Animals, SR 165, Canfield, Ohio.
Family and friends may visit www.foxfuneralhome.org to view this obituary and send condolences.
