By KATH GANNAWAY
Frances (Fran) Rowe
Born: 18 December, 1922
Died: 5 January, 2015
FRAN Rowe was the ‘gatekeeper’ for Wesburn’s youngsters for decades.
As Wesburn Primary School’s ‘lollypop lady’ she saw generations of school kids safely across the busy Warburton Highway for 23 years.
On Sundays, she wished the junior Bulldogs “luck” as they arrived at the Wesburn Oval for 19 football seasons.
She was a friendly, reliable and reassuring constant in the lives of hundreds of local families.
Known throughout the Wesburn community with affection and respect as ‘Gran’, Fran died, aged 92, on 5 January, 2015.
“She was a community person, without wanting any accolades or fuss; they’re the type of people who make the world work,” is how former Wesburn Junior Football Club committee member Rod Barnard summed up her character and her contribution.
Fran and her husband Jim came to Wesburn in 1984 and he became the first school crossing supervisor.
When Jim passed away in 1995, she was asked by Yarra Ranges Council to take on the job. It was an inheritance Fran embraced with passion and care.
Things were very different when she went to school at Tyabb.
She was the youngest of Albert and Ruby Thornell’s four children, along with Stan, Ruby and Phyl.
At just 11 years old, she left school to find work to contribute to the family income.
She worked with her mum in an orchard and at 13 took on the cleaning, washing and cooking for a family.
A little later she and Phyl worked at the Heinz factory in Richmond.
She was a pretty young 15-year-old, travelling home on the tram, when she met the love of her life.
Jim told her there and then that when she grew up, he was going to marry her – and he did.
They were married in 1942 during Jim’s leave from serving with the Air Force in New Guinea.
Family and community were what life was about for Fran.
She was a wonderful, loving wife and mother who knew how to laugh and enjoy life, but who also had faced life’s challenges with courage and resilience.
She was a Richmond Tiger fan through and through, famously standing in line for three weeks in 1982, to get tickets to the grand final.
No-one was surprised that she chose the Richmond theme song for her farewell, but her pallbearers, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, had one big final surprise in store when they pulled on Richmond jumpers and piped her out with blasts of her famous crossing whistle.
She loved dancing, was renowned for her sweet tooth, and was her grandchildren’s most ardent supporter at sports events.
Her contribution was officially recognised with awards over the years by the council, life-membership and Club Person of the Year at the WJFC, and life-membership of the Dandenong Ranges Junior Football League.
The same stoic reliability and friendly approach to the job that made Fran such a valued part of the football community, marked her as an integral and much-loved part of the school community.
“Her friendly, caring and gentle manner endeared her to the children using the crossing and they enjoyed sharing details of their lives and fun times with her,” principal Anne Stenhouse said.
“Fran knew all the children by name, forming a lovely relationship with each of them.”
Echoing the sentiments of many in the community, Ms Stenhouse said Fran would be sadly missed.
“She played such an important role at the school and became somewhat of a school icon,” she said.
Her farewell on 9 January was a beautiful celebration of her life as a loving wife, mum and gran.
Fran is survived by her daughters Dianne and Judy and their partners, five grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and 3 great-great-grandchildren.
The stories she wrote of her life, and the stories she shared, will no doubt keep her memory alive in generations to come.
