Frances Moore Whitney

© Enid News and Eagle

06-20-2010

Submitted by: Jo Aguirre

© Enid News and Eagle

ENID — On June 1, 2010, Frances Moore Whitney, attended by loving family members, passed away in hospice care. Frances, also affectionately known as “Fanny,” “Franny,” “Fran,” was born Frances Elizabeth Moore to John and Rose Ellen (Reynolds) Moore on Feb. 7, 1912 in Enid, Okla. She and her siblings, Jack and Dorothy, grew up in Enid among MANY relatives and friends. Frances graduated from Enid High School in 1929. In her senior year she was proud to be named “May Queen.”

Frances entered Phillips University in Enid that same year. She was a good student and had a good time. This young beauty with the curly red hair was Freshman Queen, Football Queen, and loved being on the Debating Team. She demonstrated her debating skills for the rest of her life, even in later life “Bible study classes.” She received a BA in education from Phillips in 1933 and taught primary grades in Billings, Okla., for the next two years.

On Aug. 16, 1934, she married Robert A. “Bob” Whitney from Oklahoma City, a fellow former student from Phillips University. Son Robert A. Whitney Jr. was born in Oklahoma City in 1935 and son, John Charles Whitney was born there in 1941. During this period Frances worked as a substitute teacher and her husband Bob owned a service station.

In 1942, WWII demanded a family move to Glendale, Calif., where Bob accepted a defense plant job in Burbank, making landing gear for military aircraft. Frances began teaching primary school, first in Newhall, Calif., and then for the next 30 years in Glendale and neighboring La Crescenta. She dearly loved elementary school teaching and her students dearly loved her.

Frances and Bob both retired in 1977 and soon returned “home” to their native Oklahoma. They settled in the town of Fort Cobb, where her mother, sister, Dorothy Kusel, and other Kusel family members were long time residents.

She spent the next 10 plus years enjoying activities at First Methodist Church (she especially LOVED those Bible study classes), Garden Club and late night “scrabble” sessions with dear friends, while Bob found a little bit of paradise fishing on Fort Cobb Lake.

For all of these years, she was the unchallenged hero of the Caddo Kiowa Technology Center cosmetology students, located just across her back fence. She visited at least twice a month, in her words, to get “fried and dyed.” She was determined to do whatever necessary to keep the beautiful, RED hair she was blessed with since her youth, and, with the students’ help, she did!

Frances and Bob were married for 58 years until his death in Fort Cobb in 1992. After several years of living alone, she moved from Fort Cobb to Atherton Place Retirement Center in Marietta, Ga., close to son, John and daughter-in-law Mary Ann. Frances enjoyed 14-years there, where she was known as the “Pearl Mesta” of Atherton Place. Her apartment was always full of neighbors.

She also volunteered at Kennesaw State College to be a guinea pig, this time for gerontology students practicing their skills. She was featured in a photo in the Kennesaw newspaper swimming with these students at age 90-plus.

And so it went: grammar school kids, cosmetology students, gerontology classes, and, as she loved to call them, “shirttail relatives” of her vastly extended family, she loved them all, and they loved her back!

Frances is survived by her sons, John (Mary Ann) and Robert (Beth); six grandchildren, Steven, Stacy, Tara, Laura and Mark; and eight great-grandsons: Daniel, Patrick, Nolan, Robert, Gino, Michael, Zachary and Addison.

Frances’ desire to be cremated was honored and her ashes will be interred next to her husband’s grave in Memorial Park Cemetery, Enid, Okla. Graveside service followed by a celebration of her long and fruitful life will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 25, 2010.

It also was her wish that any contributions, in lieu of flowers, can be given in her name to her “Spiritual Home” for many years, First United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 9, Fort Cobb, OK 73038.

(Submitted by family)

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