Frances Ward Warman passed away surrounded by her loving family on Friday, July 31, 2020, in Hingham Mass. Frances was born on Oct. 28, 1929, in Smithtown.
She is survived by her daughter, Nancy Warman Oddleifson; her husband, Christopher; and their children, August, Carly and Tucker; and her son, Timothy Ward Warman, his wife Barbara and their children Gwen and Sam. She is also survived by her brother-in-law, James C. Warman. She was preceded in death by her husband, Lynn, in 2008.
Her childhood living on the dairy farm her parents built during the depression was filled with farm and household chores to help support the family business. From an early age, Frances loved and excelled at school and considered her high school years some of the best of her life. Her lifetime spanned many transitions from electrification of their farm to novel kitchen appliances.
Frances married her high school sweetheart, Lynn Thompson Warman, on Dec. 26, 1948, during her sophomore year at West Virginia University. She and Lynn earned their bachelor’s degrees from WVU and started their careers with the West Virginia Cooperative Extension Service as home demonstration and cooperative extension agents, respectively. Lynn was on hiatus from the Extension Service while serving as first lieutenant in the Korean War during 1952.
In 1957, Frances and Lynn moved their young family to Bel Air, Md. when Lynn joined the Maryland Cooperative Extension Service. For 45 years Frances and Lynn were active members of the Harford County farm community and lifelong members of the Bel Air United Methodist Church. In 1963, Frances started the Forest Hill Kindergarten at the Forest Hill Methodist Church before transitioning to teach 7th grade home economics in 1967. She was the beloved teacher of generations of girls in the Bel Air area for seventeen years, first at the Bel Air Junior High School before opening the new C. Milton Wright Middle School as department chair of the home economics department. During their retirement, Frances and Lynn enjoyed nearly two decades of extensive travel throughout the U.S. in their motorhome, visiting family and making many new friends who they rendezvoused with at campgrounds across North America.
In 2006, Frances and Lynn sold their home of 45 years in Forest Hill, Maryland and moved to the Linden Ponds retirement community in Hingham, Mass. to be near Nancy’s family in neighboring Cohasset, Mass. In 2019, Frances celebrated her 90th birthday over a beautiful autumn weekend with 26 family members across three generations from around the country. The three-day event was a wonderful expression of the love Frances had for her family and the extent it was reciprocated back to her.
Frances had several great passions in her life beginning with her husband of 60 years, Lynn, and extending to her children, grandchildren, extended family and lifelong friends. She was always engaged in projects around the home, and especially loved basket weaving, baking cookies, reading, and playing bridge for decades with close friends from Bel Air followed by 12 years as part of the duplicate bridge community at Linden Ponds. Her greatest joy was staying in close touch with family and friends throughout her life.
Frances was the last survivor from her farm family of six siblings: Martha Lee, James Dressel Jr., Maxine, Babe and Sammy. Her death marks the passage of a generation mourned by twenty nieces and nephews, and many grandchildren, grandnieces and nephews living throughout the country.
