She would go on to be a devotee of the stars and planets, of plant and animal life and of wilderness and wild rivers, especially of the Georgia variety.

The graveside service for Mrs. Close, 87, is 11 a.m. today in Decatur City Cemetery. She died Friday of complications from Alzheimer's disease at Heritage Hills Special Care Center in Columbus. A.S. Turner & Sons is in charge of arrangements.

In 1940, Mrs. Close was uneasy about moving to Atlanta and joining her husband of one week, William Close, said her daughter Dixie Turman of Columbus.

On the train ride, however, the conductor periodically called out, "If you're bound for Atlanta, you're on the right track." Mrs. Close took that as a good omen, her daughter said.

Family photo Anna Belle Close shoots at targets in 1937. But she never allowed guns in her house after her children were born.

The couple settled in Decatur, and their home eventually became the after-meeting gathering place for the Atlanta Astronomy Club, of which she was a charter member and later president.

"I remember as a child going to bed to the sound of conversation and laughter and the smell of Mother's coffee," Mrs. Turman said.

She and her husband, who died in 1994, traveled to Canada to see a total solar eclipse and to South America in 1986 to view Halley's comet. She went on a picture-taking safari through East Africa, including Mount Kilimanjaro.

During the late 1950s, she invited friends to her back yard to view orbiting Soviet and U.S. satellites through a 16-inch telescope Mr. Close built himself.

She had plenty of earthbound interests, too. She was president of the Georgia Canoe Association in 1975 and white-watered down most of Georgia's more challenging rivers.

She hiked the North Georgia hills with the Appalachian Trail Club and the Georgia Botanical Society and often went birding with the Audubon Society. She had two file boxes full of index cards on birds she had spotted and catalogued.

And she kept a menagerie at home, mostly of the feline and canine variety. "Mother said she saw stray dogs and cats coming down the sidewalk and purposefully turning into our yard in hopes of being taken in as our pets," her daughter said.

She was a generous hostess, often inviting foreign students at local colleges over for meals and occasionally as roomers.

Survivors include two other daughters, Carol Taylor of Lawrenceville and Lila Rivera of Broken Arrow, Okla.; a son, William Close of Snellville; nine grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.