Who was Anne Smith, Dr. Bob's wife?

In Dr. Bob's own story (1939)

"Doctor Bob's Nightmare" is the first personal story in the Big Book (pp. 171–181). It is a member's story, not program text, but it is Dr. Bob's own account, and his wife is in it without her name:

• Through the bad years they could not be invited out, "and my wife dared not invite people in for the same reason" (p. 177). He made promises to his wife, friends and children that he would drink no more (p. 177).
• When he began going to the spiritual group he had met, "My wife became deeply interested and it was her interest that sustained mine" (p. 178). He adds: "How my wife kept her faith and courage during all those years, I'll never know" (p. 178).
• In May 1935 a lady telephoned his wife asking him to come over; he went only after extracting "from my wife a promise that we would not stay over fifteen minutes" (p. 179). That evening was his first meeting with Bill.

A second member's story in the book, "The Man Who Mastered Fear," is Archie T.'s: invited out of the hospital "to stay with Dr. Bob and his dear wife, Anne" (p. 250), he stayed close to a year and writes of his love for, and indebtedness to, "these two wonderful people" (pp. 251–252). See: Who was Dr. Bob?

Her life (P-53 and the 1980 biography)

P-53 (© 2017) gives the outline: "In 1915, he married Anne Ripley, whom he had met while attending St. Johnsbury Academy." (P-53, 2017). In the early 1930s Dr. Bob went to Oxford Group meetings and kept at it even while drinking, "due in large part to Anne's deep interest." (P-53, 2017). "Bob and Anne lived simply" (P-53, 2017).

Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers (1980), A.A.'s biography of Dr. Bob, built largely on the memories of people who knew them, fills that in:

• Before marriage. She was Anne Robinson Ripley of Oak Park, Illinois, a Wellesley student when they met at a dance at St. Johnsbury Academy (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). She went to Wellesley on a scholarship, and the book calls her one who "abhorred ostentation and pretense" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). The courtship lasted seventeen years, while she taught school; the book guesses she may have waited until he had been sober for a while (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).
• Marriage and family. They married in Chicago, at her mother's home, on January 25, 1915 (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980), and settled at 855 Ardmore Avenue in Akron. Their son Bob (Smitty) was born, and five years later they adopted a daughter, Sue (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).
• The drinking years. She held the family together on very little; the book has her saying of a Christmas statuette, "Oh, my dear, if only they had sent food instead!" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). It was Anne who persuaded Dr. Bob to go to Oxford Group meetings in the first place (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).

May and June 1935

Bill's 1955 account (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957) tells it from his side. When Henrietta Seiberling telephoned, it was Anne who answered: "Soon Anne S. was on the phone—A.A.'s much-loved Anne." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Anne put off the visit, since Bob, as Bill later learned, was too drunk to get up, and the next afternoon "that wonderful couple, Dr. Bob and Anne, stood at Henrietta's open door." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). See: How did Bill W. and Dr. Bob meet?

Then:

• "Still worried about Dr. Bob, Anne invited me to come over and live with them at their home at 855 Ardmore Avenue." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). The 1980 book adds Bill's explanation: "There, I might keep an eye on Dr. Bob and he on me" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).
• Mornings began with meditation: Anne sat in the corner by the fireplace and read from the Bible, and then the three of them sat in silence waiting for guidance (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). At St. Louis twenty years later Bill and others remembered her "reading from the Bible the warning of James, that 'faith without works is dead.'" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). See: What did the first members read before the Big Book existed? · Is "faith without works is dead" in the Big Book?
• When Dr. Bob wanted to go to the medical convention in Atlantic City, Anne, "Very frightened," said no (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). He went and came back drunk. Anne and Bill took turns around the clock tapering him off for the operation he had to perform, and drove him to the hospital (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). That was June 10, 1935, and he never drank again (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

Her part in the first group

The memories collected in the 1980 biography return to the same few things:

• The newcomer, and the newcomer's wife. The wife of A.A. number three, Bill D., remembered going to the house and asking "Are you Mrs. Smith?", and Anne answering, "Anne to you, my dear." (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). Anne told her, "Let's you and me stay in the background." (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980), and for about a year telephoned her every morning to ask whether she had had her quiet time (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). At meetings she went from table to table welcoming new people (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980), and the book calls her concern for the newcomer "both legendary and phenomenal" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). A Cleveland member, Dorothy, remembered Anne pointing her to a new woman nobody was talking to, and said what she learned from Anne was that "it was the new people that counted" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).
• The open house. An early member, J. D., said drunks so often stayed the night that Anne never knew who she would find on her davenport in the morning (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). Archie T., who lived with the Smiths for ten months and went on to start A.A. in Detroit, said he had been "taken in off the streets and nursed back to life by Anne Smith" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980), and that she let him figure things out for himself (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).
• Counsel. Bill writes that during the first Akron summer Henrietta Seiberling counseled many an alcoholic's family, "just as Anne was doing" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Sister Ignatia said that when patients worried her, she called Anne rather than bother Dr. Bob: "Anne's advice was of great value to me." (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). Lois W., on her first visit in 1935, said "Anne was the person I related to as another wife of an alcoholic" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). See: Who was Sister Ignatia, and what part did St. Thomas Hospital play? · Who was Henrietta Seiberling?

Anne and the family groups

Bill (1957) says the families' side of A.A. began with "the precedent already set by Anne and Lois" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957), who urged the Twelve Steps on nonalcoholic wives and husbands in their homes and travels, and that "Anne, Lois, and Katie long ago planted the ideas which have since flowered into hundreds of Al-Anon Family Groups" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). A caption in the same book calls the Smiths' house the place "where Lois and Anne laid the groundwork of what would one day be called the Family Groups" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Anne died two years before Al-Anon took its present form in 1951 (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). See: Is Al-Anon part of A.A.? · Who was Lois W., and what did she do in A.A.'s beginning?

Illness and death

Her last years were marked by cataracts that left her nearly blind (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980); Pass It On (1984) says she had three operations and then refused more (Pass It On, 1984). In May 1949 she and Dr. Bob went to Texas to see their son; on the trip, with their plane grounded in a rainstorm, she caught pneumonia, followed by a severe heart attack, and died at St. Thomas Hospital after six or seven days (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). Dr. Bob said he would miss her terribly, but that she would have hated months in bed as a burden (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). Their son said that only after she was gone did he realize she "was the solid foundation which Dad needed to carry on his part of A.A." (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). The press reports of her death made Dr. Bob's identity as a co-founder public (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). She is buried beside him in Mount Peace Cemetery, Akron, under a simple headstone (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).

In April 1950 the plaque Ohio members gave St. Thomas Hospital was dedicated by "THE FRIENDS OF DR. BOB AND ANNE S." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957), and after his death the first General Service Conference (1951) sent a scroll to "the heirs of Dr. Bob and Anne S." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

Where the sources differ, or don't settle it

• "To Wives." In a 1938 letter about the book (the 1980 book places it in June 1938, when the first two chapters were done), Bill suggested that "Anne should do the one portraying the wife," but she didn't write it; the 1980 book guesses her modesty kept her from it, and says Bill wrote "To Wives" himself (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). See: Who wrote the Big Book's chapters, including "To Wives"?
• The date of her death. The narrative in our copy of Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers reads "June 11,1949" , while the same book's chronology says "June 1" and Pass It On says "On June 1" (Pass It On, 1984). Two of the three give June 1, but our copies can't settle which is right: the narrative's "11" could be a scanning slip, a misprint, or the correct day. Check a printed copy before giving a day; "June 1949" is safe.
• Not everyone remembered her the same way. Henrietta Seiberling, unlike the others the 1980 book quotes, "came close to criticizing Anne," saying she never shared deeply at meetings and was "very sensitive" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).
• The wedding date. P-53 gives the year (1915); the day, January 25, is from the 1980 book .

Read it yourself

• "Doctor Bob's Nightmare" (pp. 171–181) is in the Big Book's personal stories, sold by A.A. World Services: https://onlineliterature.aa.org
• P-53, The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, free from A.A.: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/P-53_0725.pdf
• A.A. Comes of Age, Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers and Pass It On are sold by A.A. World Services: https://onlineliterature.aa.org
• Related: Who was Dr. Bob? · How did Bill W. and Dr. Bob meet? · Who was Henrietta Seiberling?

Sources

Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001). A.A. Comes of Age, Pass It On and Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers are cited by the file-page markers in our copies (f.), not printed pages.

Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book, P-53, A.A. Comes of Age, Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers and Pass It On are © A.A. World Services, Inc.

These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.