Annette Zaytoun

Annette Morris Zaytoun died peacefully at home December 16th, 2021, with her husband and daughter by her side. She was 78. The cause was a non-specific dementia that became clearly evident in 2015. This unrelenting disease took almost everything from her, but it never changed her sweet nature which was the core of her personality.

Named Nancy Annette Morris at birth on July 16, 1943, in Charlotte, North Carolina, she was the third child of six and first girl of Wilson Jefferson Morris and Nancy Louise Aderholt. Her first six years in Charlotte gave her a lovely southern accent that fit her soft voice and she cherished it even though she noted with a smile “…people automatically drop your IQ by 20 points when they hear it.” The family moved to Apopka, Florida where Annette grew up and graduated from high school and acquired small town roots that would be a gift in her later years. She followed her love of biology at Stetson University and earned her BS degree in 1965, then found employment at UF to begin her 44 year career working in biological research laboratories. She moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1969, working in labs at UNC and later at Bowman Gray in Winston-Salem. In 1972 she married her first husband, Dr. Albert Zaytoun, and in 1976 gave birth to her only child, a daughter she named Laura. Annette and Laura moved back to Gainesville, Florida, in 1979 to be near Annette’s sister, Pat Nichelson, and Annette worked there the rest of her career in various research labs at the VA and at UF. Among the papers on which she was a named collaborator she was very proud of those done with her principal researcher, Dr. Paul Katz, in conjunction with the lab of Dr. Anthony Fauci. She earned a reputation for running meticulously organized labs that produced consistently accurate work. Once a researcher tried to manipulate her into verifying data she knew was false so she quit that job even though she was a single mom with a child to support. It was a level of integrity and courage she would demonstrate throughout her life. She retired in 2010, hating to leave the science she loved but arthritis had claimed her gifted “lab hands”.

Motherhood was Annette’s true calling and her loving devotion to her daughter was such that early in their courtship her eventual second husband called her daughter “…the most well-loved child I have ever seen.” Later, Annette would quickly bond with her daughter’s college friends and become known as “The Mama”.

Although quiet and shy in her youth, Annette blossomed into a devoted “people” person whose innate kindness and mothering instincts carried her into the lives of her friends when she thought they could be doing better. She got a talented lab co-worker pointed toward a degree in architecture and convinced another who was trying for med-school to do a lab project at Yale to improve her resume; her friend did finish med school. And although he was recalcitrant for several years, she persisted and convinced her second husband, Richard Reynolds, to marry her in 1993 and together they enjoyed 28 years of happy, loving marriage. The only regret he would have is that he did not marry her the moment they first met. Her “people” instincts led her to be deeply involved in her 50th reunions of high school and college and revived the small town friendships that would remain an abiding joy the rest of her life

Among her many talents was an unrelenting energy to work and still keep things in perfect order, be it her lab, her home, her car, or (perhaps not as successfully) her husband. The universe tends toward chaos, but in Annette’s corner of the universe order was always maintained; she was a force of nature. She was also a consummate “nest builder” with an artistic flare and when she moved to a new residence there was no rest until the “nest” was perfectly restored with all furniture exactly ¾ inches from the wall and everything arranged as if for a “House Beautiful” photo shoot. Her ability to enthrall even complete strangers in long delightful conservation frequently turned quick trips to Publix in to hour long affairs. She was a talented seamstress and could sew anything, from clothes to curtains, loved dressing in classic styles, was devoted to genealogy, enjoyed beading, and considered chocolate as part of the food pyramid.

Annette lived a very good and loving life and all she did she did from the heart. She will be forever deeply missed. She is predeceased by her parents Wilson J. and Nancy A. Morris, and middle sister Pat Nichelson (Jack). She is survived by her husband, Richard Reynolds, daughter Laura Zaytoun (Dele), siblings Robert (Jane), William, George, and Martha Morris, nephew Eric Morris, nieces Leigh Fultz (Tony), Nancy Masengil (Ken), and Jennifer Morris, sisters-in-law Virginia Yates and Susan Johnson (Ronnie), and first husband Dr. Albert Zaytoun. In lieu of flowers the family requests that a donation of any size be made in her honor to Habitat for Humanity, the (Jimmy) Carter Center, or Stetson University. Per her wishes Annette’s remains were cremated by Crevasse’s Simple Cremation and a memorial service is being planned but due to the surging COVID-19 virus it will be held at a later date yet to be announced. Her family is deeply grateful to Haven Hospice for their kind assistance in her final days.