Anne Firestone Ball, 79, granddaughter of tire company founder Harvey S. Firestone, died Friday of complications following surgery.
Mrs. Ball, a native of Akron who lived in Greenwich, Conn., was in the hospital for surgery after being burned in a kitchen fire. She died at Bridgeport Hospital in Connecticut.
Mrs. Ball was born in Akron on Nov. 10, 1933, to Harvey S. Firestone Jr. and Elizabeth Parke Firestone. She attended elementary school at Our Lady of the Elms in Akron and high school at Miss Porter’s School, a boarding and day school for girls in Farmington, Conn.
She received a bachelor of arts degree from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Mrs. Ball was active in Greenwich community affairs and served as a director and chairman of the board of Family Centers of Greenwich. She was on the board of this organization at the time of her death. She also had been a trustee for Miss Porter’s School and a trustee for Atwill Memorial Chapel in Northport Point, Mich., where she and her husband, John F. Ball, had a home.
She is survived by her husband, a retired advertising executive, sons John F. Ball Jr. (Linda) of Winnetka, Ill., and David F. Ball (Lucy) of Darien, Conn., and daughter Sheila B. Burkert (Randall) of New York City. She also is survived by eight grandchildren and sister Martha F. Ford of Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich., who is married to William Clay Ford, the last surviving grandchild of Henry Ford.
Funeral services will be Saturday in Connecticut. A memorial service will be held this summer in Michigan.
Harvey S. Firestone founded Firestone Rubber & Tire Co. in 1900. Bridgestone Corp. of Japan bought the company in 1988.