Selma lost a native daughter Thursday. In her 96 years, Ann Cooper Plant Morthland played by the rules — mostly.
“She knew the rules but she wasn’t real strict,” said Jean Johnson, neighbor friend and fellow bridge player.
Their 40-year friendship consisted of daily phone calls, Sunday morning services at Church Street United Methodist Church and games of bridge.

It was in Morthland’s bridge games when she would loosen up the rules, not getting upset when people did not play correctly. She just played for fun, Johnson said.
The one thing that did upset Morthland was when her children took away her car keys because they felt she was too old to drive.
That wasn’t OK with her, and not only did she protest it, but she re-took the visual, written and driving test to prove to her three children she was still capable of driving.
“She was going to do what she said she was going to do, and that was it,” her son, Richard, said.
To his surprise, she passed all elements of the driving test, even the written test on the computer, an unfamiliar device.
“Momma wasn’t really good with TV controls and never had she seen a computer,” Richard said.
She became a heroine to her friends who vowed they would do the same thing if they needed to prove their abilities to their children.
But in her daily life, Morthland kept personal details to herself and did not want much attention, said friend Jean Martin.
Martin, a writer for the Times-Journal, asked Morthland several times to be featured as one of the “golden girls” of Martin’s articles. Morthland always refused.
“Ann was a very, very private person,” Martin said. “She refused to let me do one of the ‘golden years’ on her. She said ‘Nope. They don’t need to know any more about me than is obvious.’”
Martin saw Morthland at Cedar Hill Assisted Living Facility earlier this week while visiting several friends. Morthland moved into the facility just a few weeks ago.
“When I left, I hugged her goodbye and said ‘Now, I will be back to see you again,’” Martin said. “She said “‘Well, I’ll be waiting for you.’”
They didn’t get that chance for another visit.
“She was independent and if you were her friend she was a very good and loyal friend,” Martin said. “When I saw Ann she always had a smile, a hug and something nice to say, always.”
Morthland, a Selma native, attended Converse College in Spartanburg, S.C. and graduated from the University of Alabama. After graduation, she moved to Chicago where she met and married Rex J. Morthland. After living in Chicago, the couple moved to Storrs, Conn. where he was an asst. professor at the University of Connecticut.
After Rex’s service in World War II, the couple made their home in Selma.
Funeral services will be held Sunday, Sept. 12 at 2 p.m. at Church Street United Methodist Church. Visitation will be from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Lawrence-Brown Funeral Home.
For a full obituary, see www.selmatimesjournal.com.