Partly Cloudy, 47° F
(March 25, 1925 - June 11, 2012)
Frances Williams died Monday, June 11, 2012, at Spirit Mountain Hospice House, Cody after battling complications of cancer.
Born Frances Agnes Schwartzer in Philadelphia, Pa., on March 25, 1925, she was the last of nine children. At a young age she enjoyed roller skating and dancing. She met her first husband, Raymond L. Biscup at a USO dance. He was a Navy man.
She worked at Whitman Candy Company and Stetson Hats in Philadelphia, where she met John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and Burt Lancaster when they ordered their custom hats. In the beginnings of World War II, she made butterfly bombs while she was still just a teenager. After her first child was born, she moved across the Delaware River to New Jersey to live with her oldest sister, Martha. Three more children came along before the couple separated and finally divorced.
Then she worked as a cashier at Bond Bread Company and as a waitress at the Crest Diner, where she met her second husband. In 1960, she married Herbert Williams and moved to Oakwood Lakes, N.J. Then another daughter was born. She enjoyed being a homemaker and family vacations were spent in the Poconos and on the Atlantic Ocean beaches of the South Jersey shore.
She first came to Cody as an annual visitor at her daughter's home. After the passing of her second husband in 2005, she moved to Cody in September 2006. She looked forward to her mornings at McDonald’s, her afternoons at the Senior Center, and her evenings and activities with the VFW's Ladies Auxiliary and MARET animal rescue group. She loved getting to know her Wyoming grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She enjoyed wildlife drives, camping, and her five-state trip in the summer of 2011 visiting family, friends, and seeing the Sequoias, redwoods, and the Pacific Ocean for the first time.
She is survived by her sister, Gertrude Resse of Glen Falls, N.Y.; her daughter Barbara (Lyle) Emmert of Cody; a son Raymond Biscup of Nash, Texas; daughters Celia (Floyd) Martell of Turnersville, N.J.; Beverly Bradshaw (Jim Calhoun) of Clementon, N.J.; Janice Masters (Russ Garvey) of Vineland, N.J.; and niece Joyce Taylor of Collingswood, N.J.; 11 grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, and several cousins, nieces, and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents, three brothers, four sisters and her husbands.
Memorial donations in her name can be made to Spirit Mountain Hospice House, 808 Canyonview Ave., Cody, WY.
Funeral services will take place at Ballard Funeral Home, Cody, on Friday, June 15, beginning with visitation at 9 a.m., then a memorial service at 10 a.m. There will be no graveside service in Cody. Interment will take place at Locustwood Memorial Park in Cherry Hill, N.J.
An online guestbook is available at www.ballardfh.com.
