Mecosta, Mich. — Annette rushes out the back door of the kitchen. The sound of a lawn mower has called her out of the house to confer with the landscaper on her end-of-season plans for the yard. I’m standing over the stove, helping to prepare dinner for us and Annette’s two youngest granddaughters. When she comes back inside and everything is ready, we sit down at the wooden table, lovingly worn by countless family meals. Our conversation, and the fun, begins.
Annette Yvonne Kirk would baffle many Gen Z conservatives and liberals alike. She is a woman of paradoxes: traditional and free-spirited, formal and friendly, a housewife and an executive, fiercely independent and relentlessly loyal. She has dedicated her life to advocacy of the permanent things. The work of her late husband, Russell Kirk (1918–1994), author of The Conservative Mind and countless other books and articles, retains its vital place in the conservative movement thanks in no small part to her efforts.
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