Community Hero: At 91, Daisy Fann is still fighting for her north Montgomery neighborhood

The Montgomery Advertiser photos from 2002 show 72-year-old retiree Daisy Fann putting on work gloves and recruiting kids to help her clean up their north Montgomery neighborhood.

“This is our community, and we shouldn’t stand for this,” she said at the time.

Dozens of other reports in the paper over three decades document Fann’s efforts to get rid of litter, weed out crime and do something about vacant properties in North Pass. Knocking on doors. Picking up trash. Calling out elected leaders and demanding action at Montgomery City Council meetings. “The city doesn’t seem to care,” she said in 2003.

Now 91, she leaves her walker at the top of the stairs as she exits City Hall and makes her way down the steps sideways so that both hands can clutch a railing. She declines help. But Fann is eager to talk about the ongoing needs in her community, where she's still the president of the neighborhood association she founded in the 1990s.

Fann is the Montgomery Advertiser's Community Hero for September. The Community Hero program, sponsored by Beasley Allen law firm, celebrates the good works of extraordinary people in and around Montgomery. 

Those around her are just as eager to talk about the impact she has already made, and how it stretches far beyond the changes she’s catalyzed in North Pass. Many of the people she has called on for help over the years now consider her a family member, and Fann calls them her children.

“There are so many people, powerful and not powerful at all, (who) feel like we owe Ms. Daisy something for what she’s taught us and inspired us to be,” former Montgomery city official Clare Johnson said.

Three years ago, Fann lost her husband of 68 years. Three of her sons have died, one just two years ago. Her own health issues have made things harder. But her focus isn’t on the past or what she’s accomplished. It’s on what still needs to be done to improve her adopted hometown.

She made her way down the City Hall steps in August after confronting Mayor Steven Reed. She was surprised that Reed greeted her by name and knew where she went to college, but she didn’t want to talk about any of that. She wanted to know why she hadn’t gotten any answer about boarded-up houses in her neighborhood.

Former Mayor Todd Strange recounts a similar story about the first time he met Fann.

“I suspect it was Daisy Fann coming up to me at a city council meeting and introducing herself, saying, ‘I’ve got a bone to pick with you,’” Strange said.

“… She knows what she wants, truthfully. She wants a better life, a better community.”

'She was dynamite'

Fann and her husband, William, still lived in Fairfax, Va., when they bought their North Pass home in 1989. They knew they wanted to move here someday to be closer to family.

Someday happened five years later, when one of their sons died in a car accident, leaving behind a wife who was two months pregnant. They moved for good in 1994 but barely recognized North Pass. The charming neighborhood of military families was now full of litter, unkept or abandoned properties and escalating crime.

Instead of changing their plans, Fann got to work taking on the problems. She formed the neighborhood association and took charge, organized cleanups and started building connections with city leaders.

Longtime Montgomery Clean City Commission Director Susan Carmichael remembers Fann leading residents every few months in picking up everything from trash to old furniture, enough to fill sanitation trucks to overflowing. “She was dynamite,” Carmichael said. “There wasn’t anything I could ask her to do that she wasn’t able to do herself, or she got someone else to help me find a way of solving the problem. She was so sincere about seeing that the city was clean, which is a tough job. Really tough.”

Johnson, who worked as the community economic development coordinator in Strange’s office, said the neighborhood at the time had a “serious” crime problem that was fed by the number of vacant and poorly maintained rental properties. Fann formed and trained 15 block captains across the neighborhood, then worked with housing codes employees and Montgomery police on specific issues.

“Within a couple months, the crime situation turned around drastically. We were able to remove a lot of blight,” Johnson said. “There are still some things that need to be addressed, but the actual safety and peacefulness of the neighborhood demonstrably changed.”

Her relationships with those city officials and employees changed, too. Those who worked alongside her said she always appreciated their efforts, even when they couldn’t accomplish everything. Gentle reminders came in the form of a warm call or a delivery of homemade baked goods. “If you’re performing your duties, I’m on your side,” Fann said.

Johnson remembers city leaders rushing to greet Fann or take pictures with her at events. “It didn’t faze her,” Johnson said. “You never thought she even took that in. It was just a means to the end of improving the community.”

Ripples from North Pass

Fann is still fighting. She said several city-owned vacant properties in the neighborhood need to be addressed, and she won’t stop speaking her mind about it.

“We have a tax (in Fairfax), but at least you get your money value for it,” she said. “I don’t care how much you charge, as long as things are taken care of, I’m for it. … I feel like I’m wasting my money here.”

But she used to get up and clean the whole community, and her body just won’t let her do that anymore. So, she’s been trying to find someone to take over as president of the neighborhood association. Fann said she holds herself to the same standards as any other leader.

“If you’re not performing, you don’t need to be in that position,” she said. “I don’t care what position you have.”

There are so many problems that remain, things she hasn’t been able to do, friends and former city workers who have moved on. So much frustration. So much unfinished. She shakes her head.

Fann pauses as tears begin to fall.

Johnson reminds her of all the times she called and used her influence to connect city officials with other neighborhoods, leading to solutions outside of North Pass and changing the city in ways she never saw.

“It’s almost like this stone you throw in the lake and the ripples go out,” Strange said.

Fann sits in silence for a few more moments and then gathers her strength and reaches out for her walker to pull herself back to her feet.

She says she doesn’t need help.

Community Heroes Montgomery

The 12-month Community Heroes Montgomery, sponsored by Beasley Allen Law Firm, will profile one person every month this year.

Every monthly winner will receive a travel voucher from the Montgomery Regional Airport and American Airlines, a staycation from Wind Creek, dinner at Itta Bena restaurant and a certificate of appreciation from Montgomery's mayor.

At the end of the 12 months, the Heroes will be recognized at a banquet, and a "Hero of 2021" will be honored.

The 12 categories the Montgomery Advertiser will focus on: educator, health, business leader, military, youth, law enforcement, fire/EMT, nonprofit/community service, religious leader, senior volunteer, entertainment (arts/music) and athletics (such as a coach).

January Community Hero: Dr. Richard Cyrus helps thousands of uninsured people get free medical care

February Community Hero: Historian Richard Bailey is committed to sharing Montgomery's history

March Community Hero: Rebecca L. Martin dedicates decades to Chisholm

April Community Hero: How Meta Ellis' activism, community building creates space for those in need

May Community Hero: Montgomery's Brock brothers inspire young minds, souls at Valiant Cross

June Community Hero: Living color: Blueski Blue's mission marches on, one helping hand at a time

July Community Hero: 'Walking in our purpose': Brooke Freeman leads nonprofit ministry serving hundreds of widows

August Community Hero: 'Like a good neighbor': Willie Durham gives voice to small business

Do you know a Community Hero?

To nominate someone for Community Heroes Montgomery, email communityheroes@gannett.com. Please specify which category you are nominating for and your contact information.

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Brad Harper at bharper1@gannett.com.