Elder Wisdom and New Beginnings: Anna May Cory on Not Letting the Old Man In

"I get up in the morning and I try not to let the old man in." Clint Eastwood's words to Toby Keith—shared when the actor was 88—became the jumping-off point for a rich conversation about aging, innovation, and what it means to stay vibrant in your later years. Host Kathleen Francis opened The Kathleen Francis Show with this story before welcoming her guest: 86-year-old Anna May Cory, a Sedona elder who is anything but sitting in a rocking chair.

Who Is Anna May Cory, and Why Does She Keep Breaking New Ground?

"I am 86 and that's okay with me," Anna May declared early in the conversation. "I'm just not sitting in a rocking chair." Her trajectory speaks for itself: she moved to Sedona in 1986 during the Harmonic Convergence, opened the beloved Prickly Pear restaurant (where she pioneered smoothies in the bar "because I always did things ahead of my time"), and has owned the Pines Inn & Suites in Cottonwood for 25 years.

Raised on a 100-acre organic farm as a vegetarian in the 1940s and 50s, Anna May was "always different." She started the first health food store in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1960s and expanded to six more locations, including one in Aspen. In 1969, she became the first woman voted onto the Board of Directors of the National Nutritional Food Association. "Being in that business ahead of my time I always had to hold back because I was different," she reflected. "I wanted to have friends but if people think you're weird..."

Now, she's embraced that difference fully. "I'm at the point of I don't care anymore," she said with a smile. Her latest ventures prove it: a wellness directory, a sustainability-award-winning hotel, and an entirely new concept in hospitality.

What Makes Pines Inn & Suites—and Its Wellness Suite—So Innovative?

Anna May's 27-room property in Cottonwood has received two sustainability awards: one from Keep Sedona Beautiful and another from the Arizona Hotel & Lodging Association for the entire state of Arizona. "We're just a 27 room property," she noted. "It just exemplifies when you do little steps every year and keep paying attention to the sustainability of a property it also then sustains people who stay there."

In February, she took innovation further by creating a wellness suite—"no one's ever done this before," Kathleen observed. The room features over 15 wellness items including a salt wall that generates ions, an infrared sauna, and an anti-gravity chair. "The difference is you rent the room and it's yours for the whole day and night," Anna May explained. "It's not like you go to the spa for an hour or two and then you have to go home."

It's affordable, bookable online (with the best rates by booking direct), and available any day of the week for locals seeking a "staycation" or visitors wanting a deeper wellness experience. The hotel is also partnering with the Humankind Center to offer accommodations for retreat participants—just 20 minutes from Sedona and "more affordable" while maintaining an ecology-minded approach.

How Is Anna May Transforming Wellness Tourism in the Verde Valley?

While "everyone knows what Sedona has to offer," Anna May observed that "people are not aware of what Cottonwood in the Verde Valley has to offer." So she created wellnessinverdevalleyaz.com—a free online directory where practitioners can list themselves at no cost and tourists or locals can find massage therapists, yoga instructors, alternative practitioners, and sound healers.

"They don't always have a shop, they don't always have a physical location," she explained. "But how do you find them if they're just a little independent person that has a wonderful healing talent but they don't have a shop?"

The directory now has 60-70 members, and from that group, volunteers have formed the Verde Valley Wellness Network LLC. In partnership with the Greater Verde Valley Chamber of Commerce, they're organizing a major wellness fair on November 7th at the Verde Valley Fairgrounds, featuring two buildings—one for vendor tables and another for speakers and entertainment, plus activities for children.

Her vision? For Cottonwood to become known as "home of wellness and wine"—marrying the area's established wine country reputation with a new identity as a wellness destination. "My passion now is wellness and bringing people for the area which is tourism and locals," she said.

Midway through the show, Kathleen surprised Anna May by bringing out another guest: Michelle Phillips, an international medium and healer. What followed was an extraordinary conversation about grief, loss, and the spiritual dimensions of aging—including Michelle's insights about loved ones in spirit and the "crossroads" moments that define our later years.

"Those of us that were the first wave... everything we went through we're healing it for ourselves, for our ancestors forwards and backwards," Michelle offered. Anna May agreed: "I was fortunate to be born into a family that was already aware... in the 50s they would hold seances."

Kathleen reflected on the challenge many pioneers face: "Our family really can't... they don't have a way to understand who we are." But the three women agreed—the path of the elder is to hold the light, to share hard-won wisdom, and to keep creating new things. "Nothing happens overnight," Anna May said. "Just take the steps."

Watch the full conversation to experience the laughter, tears, and profound moments of connection that emerged when these three women gathered in the Red Rocks to talk about what it really means not to let the old man—or woman—in.

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