Frances L. Secaur

Frances Lenora Secaur, 93, left for "The Big Trip," as she called it, on March 29, 2014. Her departure from home was calm and peaceful.

Born July 9, 1920 in Lancaster, Ohio, she graduated from Lancaster High School and moved to Dayton, Ohio to find work. There she married Charles Secaur, from Nelsonville, Ohio, on March 13, 1943. Together they moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he was stationed in the Army Air Corps during World War II. They settled in Akron and in 1960 moved to Kent, where she lived the rest of her life.

A long-time member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), she belonged to the North Hill Christian Church in Akron and the First Christian Church in Kent, where she served as a Sunday School teacher and a Deaconess. In her later years she enjoyed a phone ministry to the congregation, arranging for greeters and lay leaders, encouraging shut-ins, and praising all who provided special music. She most recently had been welcomed into the congregation of Mantua Center Christian Church.

Mrs. Secaur was proud to be the mother of Stephen (Nancy) Secaur of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Jonathan (Linda Idoine) Secaur of Kent, and Julie (Ronald) Siciliano, also of Kent. She had been living with Jon and Linda the past two and a half years. She loved being the grandmother of nine grandchildren Greg (Kelly) Secaur, Jeremy (Cathy) Secaur, Valerie Secaur, Ben (Kristin) Secaur, Matt Secaur, Crystal Bentley, Dustin Bentley, Taylor Bentley, and Jared Bentley and five step-grandchildren Carly Siciliano, Ross Siciliano, Amy (Frederic) Gopp, Andrew (Kym) Gopp, and Justin (Melanie) Gopp, and ten great-grandchildren Cora Anne Secaur, her namesake Violet Frances Secaur, Samantha Secaur, Lilac Secaur, Braydon Howman , Cameron Howman , Ethan Parr, Devin Gopp, Audrey Gopp, and Spencer Gopp. Although not actually related to her, she loved Erin Gopp, Indira Sultanic, and Navdeep Tandon as her own grandchildren and considered them part of her family.

Everyone who knew Mom felt loved, from her extended family and friends, to her friends in church, to the students at Longcoy School whom she served as a classroom aide. Affectionately known as Queenie to much of her family, she rarely had an unkind word and always saw the best in everyone. We will especially miss her wonderful sense of humor that persisted to the end.

Widowed in 1979, she learned to drive and rose to meet all the challenges of independent living. She was preceded in death by her husband, Charles Secaur, her parents, Harry and Lola Tipple of Stow, her sister Marjorie Conner of Stow, and her brother Harry Edward Tipple of Lancaster. She is survived by all her children, nephew Gary Collins of El Paso, Texas, sister-in-law Florence Tipple of Lancaster, and nieces Sandra Klemz of Debary, Florida, and Judith McMullen of Heath, Ohio.

Guests are welcome at calling hours at Bissler & Sons Funeral Home, 628 West Main Street in Kent, from 2 to 4 PM and 6 to 8 PM on Friday, April 4th. We will celebrate her life at the First Christian Church, 335 West Main Street in Kent, at 11 AM on Saturday, April 5th, with interment at Standing Rock Cemetery in Kent. Memorials are welcome to Robinson Visiting Nurse and Hospice, or First Christian Church of Kent, or Mantua Center Christian Church.