Biography
Wigmore was born Anna Marie Warapicki in Lithuania on March 4, 1909 to Antanas and Anna Warapicki. Her father emigrated to America in 1908, settling in Middleboro, Massachusetts, where he first worked as a laborer in a shoe mfg. company (1920 Fed Census/1924 & 1925 Middleboro city directories) and later as a truck driver for a bakery (1930 Fed Census) during Wigmore's American teen-age years; Wigmore's mother followed five years later, aboard the ship Erlangen, on June 16, 1913. After WWI, Anna Marie, then 13, and her brother, Mykola, age 15, (both surnames erroneously entered on the ship's passenger log as "Varapickis") accompanied by an uncle, arrived at Ellis Island on December 9, 1922 on the ship USS America, to join their parents and younger sister Helen, born February 16, 1921 in Middleboro. The 1930 Federal Census found Wigmore living in Bristol, Massachusetts and working as a hospital maid under the name of Anna Warap.
On December 25,1930, Anna Marie (under the name "Warap" per wedding coverage Stoughton News-Sentinel, 1 Jan 1931) married Everett Arnold Wigmore of Stoughton, Massachusetts, where they resided during their marriage. A daughter, Wilma, was born on July 9, 1941. On January 12, 1942, Wigmore became a United States citizen under Certificate No. 5302785, U.S. District Court, Boston, Massachusetts.
In 1968, Ann Wigmore co-founded the Hippocrates Health Institute, a health resort in the United States, with Viktoras Kulvinskas. Known as "the mother of living foods", she was an early pioneer in the use of wheatgrass juice and living foods for detoxifying and healing the body, mind, and spirit. She died in Boston on February 16, 1994 of smoke inhalation from a fire at the Ann Wigmore Foundation. When Ann Wigmore died her Institute was not named the Hippocrates Health Institute. It was called the Ann Wigmore Foundation. Brian Clement owned the Hippocrates Health Institute which he moved from Boston to West Palm Beach, Florida.
In her autobiography, Why Suffer?: How I Overcame Illness & Pain Naturally, Wigmore recalls observing her grandmother using herbs and natural remedies as a child in Lithuania. As an adult, she began researching and testing various whole foods and diet approaches, which she credits with solving her medical problems and changing her life.
Read more about this topic: Ann Wigmore
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