Frances Leona Smith

The ability to make people laugh is the greatest gift and the highest consolation.

Frances Leona Smith (Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Oyate), 91, of Red Wing, died Wednesday, March 27, 2013 at Deer Crest.

Fran was born January 4, 1922 in South Dakota, daughter of August and Lucy (Quinn) Block. From the age of 6 she resided at the Immaculate Conception Boarding School in Stephan, Crow Creek Reservation, South Dakota. Fran and her two sisters were orphaned when Fran was 8 years old. After graduation from the mission school, she received a scholarship to attend Brescia College in Owensboro, Kentucky. While working as a secretary for a bank president in Evansville, Indiana, after college graduation, Fran was diagnosed with tuberculosis and spent two years in a sanatorium. In 1947, after a full recovery, she moved to Red Wing, Minnesota where her sisters, Helen and Augusta (Gussie), already lived. In Red Wing she found work that she loved at Central Research Laboratories as office manager and demonstrator of master-slave manipulators. She married Roy Atlee Smith in early May of 1957 in Red Wing. They spent many happy years with friends and co-members of the Greater Northern Goodhue County Cattle Breeders Association and the near 50 year old ABCD Club, where she was lifetime president and co-founder. Roy supported Fran's many interests including her stint as first chair kazoo in a jug and kazoo band, her pranks and play with her dear friend Lorraine Rehder and her many turns on stage with Red Wing Community Theater.

Fran was often ahead of her time and after many years working as a secretary for Central Research and Goodhue County Juvenile Court, Fran worked independently providing office services for organizations including Kernan Public Relations, the golf club and others out of her home office.

Fran was very involved in her community. She was a member of many organizations including the American Legion Leo C. Peterson #54 Auxiliary, the Red Wing Elks Lodge BPOE #845, the Red Wing Country Club and the Red Wing Public Golf Club (where she hit a hole in one at age 76!) and The Church of St. Joseph, where she was a reader and funeral choir member. She and Roy served community youth in several official and un-official capacities, including the Koda Club, the East Ave Mafia and more. Their door was always open to young people.

She is survived by her daughter, Mona (Marty Case) Smith of Minneapolis; sister, Helen (Mathilda) Johnson of Red Wing; grandchildren, Nathaniel and Riley Nesheim-Case, Jessica Rice; Billy and Missy Scherkenbach, and many other young people who thought of her as Granny Franny; her niece, Norma Jean (Steve) Arnold; great nieces, Sherri, Patty, Sarah, Marney; grand-nieces and a great grand niece; many, many relatives in South Dakota; John Scherkenbach and innumerable friends who were family to her. Her husband, Roy; her parents, her sisters Mary Block Otto and Augusta Block Thompson, her nephew Wayne Johnson and many dear friends preceded her in death.

Mass of Resurrection will be 1:00 p.m., Wednesday, April 3, 2013 at the Church of St. Joseph, with Father Thomas Kommers presiding. Burial will be at Calvary Cemetery, at a later date. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service at the church. Funeral arrangements are by the Mahn Family Funeral Home, Bodelson-Mahn Chapel. Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.mahnfamilyfuneralhome.com.