Frances Taft

FRANCES "FRANNY" TAFT, 95, long-time professor of art history and an avid tennis player (as pictured here), died peacefully at home on Mother's Day, May 14. Wife of the late Seth Chase Taft and matriarch of a close-knit family, Franny also had a knack for making and keeping friends, beginning back in Connecticut where she grew up and extending through her nearly 70 years in Cleveland.

She devoted her extraordinary energies to institutions she loveda�"especially Vassar College, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Cleveland Institute of Art, where she taught for 62 yearsa�"and to her family, her Pepper Ridge community, and her many friends.

She lived out her final days in the house that she and Seth helped build. She modeled a full, impassioned, generous life for her 26 progeny: four children (Rick (Susan) of Pepper Pike, OH, Tom of Ambler, PA, Cindy (Fred Mueller) of Somerville, MA and Tucker (Phyllis Yale) of Lexington, MA); ten grandchildren (Mandy and Josh; Nathan, Genny, Seth and Charlie; Ellie and Zoe; Becca and Maia) and 12 great grandchildren. Franny served in the United States Navy as a member of the WAVES.

A Memorial Service will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday July 22 at the Cleveland Museum of Art in the Gartner Auditorium. Anyone wishing to make a contribution in her honor may do so with a gift to the Art Museum in remembrance of Franny.