She kept a diary, now in the Texas Collection at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, in which she shared her deepest thoughts. Annie had a burden for Christian missions and felt called to go to China where she served most of her adult life, leaving only when forced to by the occupying Japanese Army in 1943.
Annie began her missionary work in China in 1905. Shortly thereafter, she became reacquainted with fellow missionary Dr. Eugene Sallee, whom she had first met in Texas at a Baptist youth conference. Annie had written in her diary that she did not want to marry, feeling that her life's mission was to carry the gospel message to the Chinese people. Elsewhere in her diary, she disclosed that if she ever married, she certainly did not want to marry in China. However, the young Dr. Sallee must have been quite persuasive. After working together for a while, Sallee asked her to marry him and she ultimately accepted. They were married in China on November 18, 1906.
During their courtship, Annie wrote in her diary that she had confided her attraction to Sallee to her sister "Sittie," Josephine Jenkins Truett. Josephine told her that she and Dr. George W. Truett had not kissed until the day of their wedding. Impressed by Jospephine's actions, Annie vowed not to kiss Dr. Sallee until the day of their marriage. To the best of our knowledge there is no further mention of this vow in her diary, but knowing the resolve of Annie in other matters (despite the fact that Dr. Sallee was able to persuade her to marry him), we speculate that she probably kept this vow.
Annie and Dr. Sallee were married almost 25 years until his untimely death in the United States while on furlough in 1931. Annie remained on the mission field in China until she was compelled to leave during World War II.
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