Marjorie Anne Frankenbery

Marjorie Anne (Swinney) Frankenbery, of rural Altoona, Kansas passed away at 11:00 p.m. Wednesday, February 28, 2018 at the Neodesha Care and Rehabilitation Center.

Born in her grandparents’ home in Yates Center, Kansas on February 3, 1918 to William T. and Gertrude Swinney, Marjorie Anne was the youngest of 9 children.

She graduated from Vilas High School in 1935 and graduated college at Arkansas City Junior College in 1937.

Marjorie Anne began her teaching career in 1937 at the elementary school in Altoona, teaching first and second grades. She met her future husband, Clark Abram Frankenbery, on a blind date in 1939. The blind date was in Fredonia, and they saw the movie “Sweethearts.”

They planned to be married in the early 1940s, but the U.S. Army had different plans. Clark was sent to the southwest Pacific as part of World War II, and Marjorie Anne was hired by the Civil Aeronautics Administration as one the first women to be an air traffic controller. She served in this role in Kansas City, St. Louis, and Wichita during the war. While in Wichita, the B29 bomber was commissioned into the Air Force, and Marjorie Anne joked that she was one of the few people to tell five-star General Hap Arnold where to go!

Clark and Marjorie Anne were married on August 26, 1944 in Wichita while Clark was home on temporary leave after serving 30 months in the Army. Following Clark’s return at the end of the war, the couple took residence in the Frankenbery farmhouse, in rural Altoona, which was originally built by Clark’s father. They lived there for their 56 years of marriage. They raised two children on the farm – William Marlen and Rebecca Anne.

After her children were of school age, Marjorie Anne attended summer classes at Kansas State Teacher’s College in Emporia, and she earned her bachelor’s degree in education from Kansas State College in Pittsburg, Kansas in 1962. In her teaching career, Marjorie Anne taught in three locations – Altoona, at the North Brown school in rural Neodesha, and Fredonia. In Fredonia, she taught third grade for 21 years until she retired in 1980. One of the students in her first class in Fredonia was Bob Timmons, who many years later married Marjorie Anne’s daughter, Rebecca.

Marjorie Anne is survived by her two children: son Marlen Frankenbery and his wife Sharon of Altoona, Kansas, and daughter Rebecca Timmons and her husband Bob of Fredonia, Kansas. She is also survived by her four grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents, 3 brothers, 5 sisters, and husband.

Visitation will occur Sunday, March 4 at Wickham Family Funeral Home from 5:00 to 7:00. Funeral services will be held at the Fredonia First United Methodist Church at 2:00 Monday, March 5 with burial at the Altoona Cemetery.

Memorial remembrances are suggested to the Altoona Methodist Church Food Bank and the Fredonia Education Foundation.