Quilt Exhibition
Celebrating Local Quilter
Ann Northcutt McBride

May 11 - May 24

From May 11th through May 24th, the Arts Center of Cannon County will host a quilt exhibition celebrating Woodbury quilter Ann Northcutt McBride. The public is invited to experience almost four decades of stories told in stitches on display in Cannon Hall.

Ann Northcutt McBride and the Fabric of Life

Ann Northcutt was born on May 6, 1936. She grew up in the small town of Woodbury with her siblings, Faye and Richard, and her loving parents, Dude and Annie Northcutt.

After graduating high school in 1954, Ann studied nursing in Nashville. She became a registered nurse in 1957 and then applied to be a stewardess for Eastern Airlines. In those days, airlines required stewardesses to be nurses. Applicants also were required to be healthy, single and attractive. She made the cut.

Before Ann’s brief stint as an airline stewardess, she began dating a dashing young USAF officer named John McBride. This yankee flyboy was quickly smitten and couldn’t bare the thought of losing his future bride to the glamorous world of commercial aviation in the 1950’s. Always the charmer, John convinced Ann to marry him and the McBride dynasty began soon after.

Life as an Air Force bride was never dull, particularly after five children were born in the course of six years. This “brat pack” starring Patrick, Jill, Michael, Susan and Nancy made sure everybody knew who the McBrides were wherever they were stationed. These stations included Smyrna, TN; Langley, VA; Biloxi, MS; Murfreesboro, TN; the Azores Islands; and Fort Walton Beach, FL.

While living in the Florida panhandle, Major John McBride retired from the USAF after serving in Vietnam. The kids were older and no longer tugging at the apron strings. So, Ann explored the breadth and depths of nursing with a vengeance. She worked as a hospital nurse, a school nurse, and industrial nurse. And after earning a Masters in Nursing, Ann helped to manage the Okaloosa County Alcohol Rehabilitation Center.

By the early 1980’s, all but the youngest of the McBride children were high school grads and off to make their marks in the world. John and Ann decided to move to Atlanta, GA, where job offerings were better. Professionally, Ann worked in Atlanta for 17 years as a public health nurse and as a director within the CDC TB Program. In her personal life, she developed three passions…the Braves, grandchildren and quilting.

Ann’s love of quilting began at a small quilt shop in Stone Mountain, GA, where she took a beginners class in quilting. She was already a talented seamstress creating heirloom dresses for her growing collection of grandkids. Yet with quilting, Ann was drawn to the creative artistry of the craft. She became friends with the quilt shop owners and invested in advanced classes, bolts of fabric, and top-end sewing machines.

In 1996, she and John retired and moved back to Cannon County, their final deployment. They purchased 23 acres of park-like property tucked away in the hills and hollows between Woodbury and Auburntown. On the site was a beautifully restored chestnut log cabin built in 1847. They named their new homestead “Arcadia” appropriately defined as an idyllic, unspoiled, and harmonious place.

Over the next two decades, Arcadia was the magical gathering place for the McBride’s ever-growing extended family. It was also one of the meeting spots for a quilt group Ann joined called the “Flying Needles”. This group fostered lasting friendships and helped Ann evolve as a quilting artisan. She had John build a large, sunlit sewing room where enough quilts were created to blanket her entire circle of family and friends.

In 2017, Ann and John left the wild wonders of Arcadia for a more manageable home closer to family and town. Before this move, Ann and some of her quilting buddies formed a new quilting group called the “Bees”. This talented group has been her rock and inspiration throughout the years. When John McBride passed away in February 2021, Ann credits her family of quilters for helping her to cope during this sad time.