In Memoriam

Fran Ford (Ford) VIEW PROFILE

Fran Ford (Ford)

We lost Fran Ford on Feb 23, 2020, to cancer. I remember Fran fondly as a dear friend, a cheerleader, and member of our A Capella Choir. 

The link to her obituary is https://www.richmond.com/obituaries/ford-frances/article_0105e094-ef43-5f2d-bfd7-948ef67cf17a.html.

FORD, FRANCES

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    • FORD, FRANCES
 

FORD, Frances Hope, 73, of Richmond, Va., died from cancer and ensuing complications at St. Mary's Hospital on February 23, 2020. Fran was born June 30, 1946, in Richmond, to Elizabeth Crighton Ford and Eugene Elwood Ford. With her two sisters, she spent summers on the river at Horse Point. She graduated from Mary Baldwin University in 1968 and in 1969 married her first love, Tarleton Gillespie after he returned from Vietnam. Together they moved to Omaha, where she earned a master's degree in psychology and their son, Tarleton was born. Next, they moved to New York, where Fran built a powerful career in the financial industry, one of only a handful of women at the executive level at Xerox, Citibank, Sanford Bernstein, Legg Mason, Wheat First, Wachovia and Wells Fargo. After her divorce, Fran found love and friendship with Vincent Fiorentino, relishing their weekends at the lake cottage. Wherever Fran bought a home, she wanted it to be on a lake. Fran's coworkers remember her as determined and fair, a champion of those who worked for her. Her friends delighted in her humor, intelligence and good cheer. Her son remembers her as always supportive, always loving and an ally in all things. Though she lived in New York, she never lost her Southern sensibility. After retirement, Fran moved home to Richmond, where she rejoined St. Stephen's Church and found new friendships at 5100 Monument Avenue. Weather permitting, Fran could be found sitting by the pool. Always private about her declining health, her answer to everyone even until the very end, was "I'm just fine." Fran is survived by her son, Tarleton Gillespie, his wife, Jenna and their children, Jonas and Cleo; by her sister, Mary Bruce, her son, Doug Wood and her husband, Rufus A. Yonan; and by her sister, Susan Ford Collins and her two daughters: Cathy Rosenberg and her husband, Alan and two children, Dylan and Eliza, Margaret Chaneles and her husband, Steve and two children, Sam and Marc. A service is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday, February 29, at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, with a private burial afterward in Hollywood Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, consider donating to The American Cancer Society in her name, (https://donate3.cancer.org/?giftType=hon). More memories and photos will be available at http://tarletongillespie.org/franford soon. Please keep Fran alive in your thoughts, and may she always have a view of the water.

https://www.richmond.com/obituaries/ford-frances/article_0105e094-ef43-5f2d-bfd7-948ef67cf17a.html





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