Ann Bedsole published her life story in 2022 at age 92. The book’s title is “Leave Your Footprint.”

She died December 1, 2025, at age 95. She left many footprints.

She left a footprint on the Alabama Legislature and the Republican Party.

Bedsole was the first Republican woman elected to the Alabama House of Representatives, and later, the first woman elected to the Alabama Senate.

Even when Republicans were in the minority, and even when she was the only woman in the room, she managed to get things done.

She ran for governor in 1994, made the Republican runoff, but lost to the eventual winner, Fob James.

She left a footprint on many young lives by founding the Alabama School of Math and Science. Alabama’s best and brightest are shining brighter due to the Ann Bedsole footprint as a world-class residential high school for the gifted. This is a footprint that will not fade.

She left a footprint for the homeless with the Sybil Smith Village, named for her mother.

She fell short in her run for mayor of Mobile in 2005.

But she also left footprints in the business and social community and certainly footprints in forestry and property development.

Footprint after footprint led to her induction into the Alabama Academy of Honor in 2002.

Ann Bedsole was the quintessential Southern lady. Even her nonpareil voice was the voice of a Southern lady, not a belle, but a Southern professional lady.

Funeral services will be announced.

Jim Zig Zeigler is a contributing writer for Yellowhammer News. His beat includes the positive and colorful about Alabama – her people, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former State Auditor and Public Service Commissioner. You can reach him at [email protected].