People
Collection for person entities.
Pages
-
- Frances Bradford
- Frances was a receptionist at the Denver & Rio Grande Hospital and a member of the Gray Ladies at the Hospital.
-
- Frances Crowell
- A volunteer with the Mesa County Oral History Project.
-
- Frances Felicia (Guerrie) Mendicelli
- She was born in Grimaldi, Italy. Her mother, Felicia Forillo died in 1904. In 1907, when she was almost eight years old, Frances came with her father, siblings and her father’s new wife, Raffaela Guerrie, to the United States. Because her father was a U.S. Citizen who had lived previously in the United States, the family’s processing was expedited upon their arrival at Ellis Island. The family settled in Grand Junction, Colorado, where she spent the rest of her life, outside of a short time in Thompson, Utah (where her father was a section foreman on the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad). The family lived on S. 5th Street close to where the viaduct was later built, and on 211 Hale Avenue in the Crawford Addition. She attended the Bryant School and learned English with help from a neighbor boy, who read to her in English from his primer and explained what the words meant. As a child she was a daredevil, climbing the water tower near the depot where her father worked and doing other dangerous but fun things. The family celebrated Italian Christmas, food and culture. Frances learned to make Italian bread from her step-mother, which they sold to bachelors who worked on the railroad. She also helped clean the roundhouse of ash after an engine departed the station. She married Alfonso Mendicelli in St. Joseph’s Catholic Church on May 23, 1915. Like her father, he was a section hand on the railroad.
-
- Frances Grace (Southway) Idler
- She was born to Henry Southway and Gladys Irene (Tabor) Southway in Colorado. Her father, whose parents were Dutch but was a Coloradan by birth, was a farmer. Her mother, also a native Coloradan, was a homemaker. The 1920 US Census shows the family living and farming in the Sheridan area of Arapahoe County, when Frances was ten years old. The Census record seems to indicate that Frances was the oldest of four siblings. Colorado marriage records show that she married Earnest S. Crane on February 25, 1928 in Denver, when she would have been about eighteen. The 1930 census shows Earnest and Frances living with their sister-in-law Pearl Finch in Kansas City, Missouri, with Earnest working for a sand company and Frances taking care of their one-year old daughter, Betty. They apparently began farming sometime after that, but were adversely affected by the Dust Bowl, making them eligible for a Federal government resettlement program that allowed them to move to Loma, Colorado and purchase land in 1938. They put in a crop after moving, but Earnest suffered a nervous breakdown and never recovered. The 1940 US Census shows Frances as married, but that she was living without her husband in Loma while raising their five children. She could not care for the eight acres of land by herself and had to foreclose. She remarried to William “Bill” Idler sometime before 1950, when US Census records show them living together in Loma. They lived in a home owned by the Holly Sugar Company. William had a garage in the rear of the home where he worked as a mechanic. The couple stumbled upon foster care when they applied for a babysitting or daycare license. Mesa County social services suggested that they instead become foster parents. They began taking newborns, but the county suggested that they instead take teens, since they seemed to work best with that population group. They fostered many children, with Frances listing the number at 122 in an interview with the Fruita Times in 1983. Her husband died in 1973. She was recognized for her service to the community and apparently well-loved by the children she took care of. She was a member of the Methodist Church, but also attended services at other churches when asked by her foster children. She was also president of the Monument Extension Homemakers, a Rebecca, and a member of the Progressive Womens Club. According to Leola Wiswell, Idler was good at reciting (plays and poetry, presumably), and would give performances at the Loma School.