Frances Bransford - 95
Frances Bransford
Age 95
Frances Sutler was born on November 5, 1916 in Charleston, West Virginia. Her parents were from Charlottesville, VA and moved to West Virginia in 1914. Frances had 3 older brothers, an older sister and one younger brother, although all four brothers died in their 80s. Her 97-year-old sister is living in South Carolina.
After completing high school in Charleston, Frances attended Kanawha College at nights. She started a day job in 1935 with Standard Oil. One requirement was that girls had to leave if they married. Frances did get married in 1939, although she waited a year to tell her employer, then took a government job in the Atlas building, one of the few with air conditioning.
Frances met her husband, Athal Bransford (known as "A E"), in 1937 when he was graduating in Chemical Engineering at West Virginia University. During his final exams he was diagnosed with Hodgkins disease and given one year to live. Despite this prediction, he went to Charleston to get a job with Union Carbide and met Frances at a dance. In spite of his diagnosis they soon married and their marriage lasted 70 years until he died in 2009 at age 94, 73 years after his initial diagnosis, which obviously was in error. Frances says, "He had the most wonderful attitude and that's where I got my philosophy for living. Your day is going to be as happy as you make it and you're going to be as happy as you want to be. If you're happy, you're going to meet people who reflect what you're doing and thinking."
A E and Frances had 4 children: 2 girls and 2 boys. A E was promoted at Union Carbide and in 1954 they moved to Victoria, Texas so that he could head up the labs at the Seadrift plant. He retired in 1978 at age 65, but they stayed on in Victoria until 2002 when their daughter in Houston arranged for them to move to The Hallmark. They were very happy with their move and never looked back.
Currently, all four children are in Texas: daughters in Kerrville and Mason, and sons in Corpus Christi and Houston.
Although Frances has macular degeneration and can no longer read, she remains positive and very active. She likes singing and is still involved with a hymn singing activity that she organized for Alzheimers patients a number of years ago. She also likes line dancing and participates regularly in classes and "Happy Hour" dances at The Hallmark. She attributes her positive outlook on life to her husband. He helped her to overcome the lack of closeness and "sour" outlook that was a trait of her family. She says "Attitude makes all the difference!"
