Ann Iona Warner

Ann Iona Warner, 69, of Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, formerly of Wilmington, DE, died on April 16, 2026, after a long and valiant battle with cancer. Born in Denver, Colorado, in 1957 to Mario Iona and Nancy Mossman, she was educated in the Denver Public School system and went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in 1979. She married her husband, David, in 1980. During their nearly 46 years of marriage, they raised two sons and 10 cats.

Ann lived a life rooted in a deep Lutheran faith and intense love of music. She was a caring and supportive mother for her two sons, an advocate for helping others, and a loving and understanding wife.

The importance of faith revealed itself early during her childhood as she was active in all manner of youth activities at Messiah Lutheran Church in Denver. From Sunday School to summer camps in her teen years, Ann was always front and center, organizing events and trips, and often playing her guitar. This profession of faith carried throughout her adult life at the many churches she belonged to as she accompanied her husband to various duty stations during his 20-year Navy career. Once settling in Delaware, for the past 29 years she had been a congregant at St. Stephen’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wilmington, Delaware.

There she possessed an unbounded passion for making St. Stephen’s a better place, and to that end she performed almost every imaginable job to support the church. For a time, in fact, she was the church’s sole office staff responsible for the day-to-day administration of the church and publishing weekly bulletins and periodic newsletters. She served several terms on the Church Council—sometimes as President; she was the Treasurer for many years, and she served on the worship and music committees for the entire time. During a several year period of pastoral changes, she joyfully provided so much requested advice, guidance, and support to the clergy that she seemed to be an assistant pastor.

She sang in every church choir in every church to which she belonged. Ann was a founding member of the Delaware Womens’ Chorus at the Music School of Delaware—across the street from home. During the more-than 20 years of being in the Chorus, she sang first soprano. Her passion for music was not limited to singing, or the playing of guitar at childhood church outings. In her early 30s she taught herself to play the folk harp after having purchased a custom-ordered 34 string Celtic/Folk model. She was soon playing that harp at church—where else? —for special services. While living in Wilmington, she became part of the Brandywine Harp Orchestra, during which the group played at churches, senior living communities, and other venue. Her harp collection continued to grow as did her job in playing them even as the challenges of fighting cancer made this more difficult.

St. Stephen’s hosted the offices of Lutheran Community Services (LCS) and the largest food bank in northern Delaware, which is still in the church building, though LCS outgrew its offices there. Ann was attracted to LCS’s mission of helping the less fortunate neighbors in Wilmington, and served for many, many years on the LCS Board of Directors, including three years as their President.

From her mother, Ann gained an appreciation for the enjoyment and satisfaction hand- and needle-point crafts brings. She was a member of the Embroiderer’s Guild of America and served on the boards of local and international chapters. Not so long ago she braved the heat of Tucson, Arizona, in the summer, to attend the American Needlepoint Guild’s 50^th Annual Seminar. At home, the living room couch was always full of projects ranging from clothes for her to gifts for children and grandchildren all in various stages of completion, and elsewhere in the house were dozens of projects-in-waiting. A typical afternoon involved sitting on the couch, listening to the never-ending collection of podcasts on her iPhone at 1.5x speed through an earpiece, a craft project in hand and two cats alternately sleeping in her lap or trying to help her with intricate project details. Following one surgery, she got a portable weaving machine to keep her occupied during the recovery period.

Ann’s journalism training did not go for naught. After graduation she was an intern at the Washington Post followed by a job as a Chicago Sun Times copy editor. After a pause to get married, and a few years working for the Coast Guard Academy Foundation, she worked at the Naples, Italy, Italian newspaper which produced an English language paper for the American military community, and then at The Day in New London, Connecticut. Writing and editing stayed central to her activities throughout the remainder of her life as she edited newsletters for a variety of organizations, some to which she belonged, and some to which her husband belonged.

She belonged to both the American Institute of Parliamentarians (AIP) and the National Association of Parliamentarians (NAP) and was also a life member of Mensa. Ann became the Executive Director of AIP, a position she held for nearly a decade. During that time, she became a Certified Parliamentarian, a certification kept current for the rest of her life. For dozens of years, she served as Parliamentarian for a northeast chapter of Overeaters Anonymous as well as an online and international chapters. By far, her favorite Parliamentarian stint was for the Delaware-Maryland Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Over the course of almost 25 years, she served for three bishops gaining their respect and friendship as she guided them through the intricacies of Roberts Rules of Order during frequent contentious motions, amendments and still more amendments.

Ann is survived by her husband, David, sons Daniel and Matthew (Liz Amato) and their children, Patrick and Bianca; brother Steven, and Mother Nancy.