Ann Marie Jacob

Ann Marie Jacob, 87, of Atlanta, died peacefully at home, of congestive heart failure, Wednesday, March 25, 2020. Ann was born in New York, NY, a city with which she shared a fresh exuberance, on July 15, 1932. An independent woman, she was already living and working on her own in Manhattan by the early Fifties. No one has yet successfully imitated her native accent. Eventually she met and married a young expat Berliner named Ernst Manfred Jacob. Together they nourished a love of fine art and German race cars, and brought two daughters Yvonne and Yvette into the world. Moving to Atlanta in the early Sixties, the couple developed a coterie of similarly arty friends with whom to share their passions. Fred, who worked for the German lens manufacturer, Zeiss, died tragically in his thirties, leaving Ann widowed with two daughters to bring up on her own. A person of pluck and determination, Ann started in her living room what became one of the South’s first and longest-operating art galleries and female-owned businesses. In its near fifty-year run, Ann Jacob Gallery became a fixture first of Peachtree Center, then Phipps Plaza, in Atlanta, and other locations including New York, Palm Beach, and finally, her much beloved Highlands, NC, a second home she shared for many years with Dave Schoenfeld. On any given day, virtually seven days a week, Ann could be found holding forth at the gallery, dressed to the nines in designer clothes, capes, and heels. Yvonne and Yvette were brought up playing at the gallery, soaking it up, until they were old enough to work in the business, too. Ann made her reputation first with large sculpture shows, and her stable of artists’ works still grace some iconic locations, such as Steffen Thomas’s sculpture in the fountain near Fourteenth Street and Peachtree, or Arnoldo Pomodoro’s Il Grande Disco in Bank of America Plaza, Charlotte. She also represented a number of regional and international artists of all genres for half a lifetime, helping build the careers of scores of notable friends such as Peter Polites, Ben Smith, Sallie Whistler Marcucci, and Gary Bukovnik. We could not name them all. Her many customers and friends will smile to recall her fascinating stories, the way she could bring any work to life for the viewer with expression, and the broad range of her offerings. Like her own imagination, the last gallery in Highlands was chockablock with a vivid array of art, objects, bibelots, crafts, and antiques. You left dizzily enchanted. If you stayed longer than ten minutes, whether you purchased or not, and especially if you were a child, you departed with a unique gift from Ann-- pads, knickknacks, jewelry, or more often than not, a small painting. Most of all you left with the conviction that art is enriching and essential to life. Ann was generous to a fault, and she gave extravagantly and joyfully to artists, to many friends in need, animals, to relatives, and especially to her dear daughters, granddaughters, and in-laws. Her friend Patricia described Ann as “brilliant, funny, spicy and sweet,” and remembered she worked with a trainer till age 80. We her family mourn the loss of a truly remarkable and generous woman. Because of her, our life together has become a work of art: beautiful, full of emotion and challenge, and ever charged with bright energy, laughter, and love. Adieu for now. Ann Marie Jacob, Requiescat in pace. Ann is preceded in death by her mother Marina Schroeder Fernandez, father Raul Fernandez, sister Lolita Fernandez Schadt, and brothers Raul Fernandez and Leopold Fernandez, and by husbands Ernst Manfred Jacob and David Lindsay Schoenfeld. She is survived by her daughters Yvonne Spiotta (Robert) of Atlanta, and Yvette Schorsch (David) of Woodbury, CT, as well as three granddaughters, Marguerite, Marianna, and Lizzie. A celebration of life will be held at a future date after easing of COVID-19 restrictions. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials be sent to a charity of your choice or to Atlanta Youth Academy at: https://www.atlantayouthacademy.com/giving/donate-online In Ann’s memory, reach out and joyfully encourage the creative endeavors of young people in your life.