Growing up in her birthplace, the rural area of Walker County, Ella worked along side her four brothers on their family farm. After high school she married her high-school sweetheart, Glenn H. Franks, and moved to Florida where he was stationed in the Navy.
Her family would move back to Nauvoo for a few years and then to Michigan to work in the auto industry. By this time, Ella had birthed her two oldest children, Glenda and Terry. Glenn would take a job at Brookley Field and move his family to Mobile, Alabama. Soon afterwards, they would move to the outskirts of Mobile in the Semmes area where Ella would deliver her two younger children, Donna and Marty. She would remain in Semmes for over fifty years before her health deteriorated and she requested to be moved into a nursing home.
Ella was a good cook and homemaker. She was talented when it came to decorating her home. Although she may have been born and raised in the country, when Ella stepped outside her home into the public arena, she loved to dress in attractive clothing, have her hair fixed just right, her makeup done just so, and wear lots of beautiful jewelry. One might mistake her for a movie star.
After her children were grown, Ella loved working outside the home where she could meet and communicate with others. Ella retired at the age of 82 when her hearing became seriously impaired.
Saved at a camp meeting soon after she and Glenn married, Ella would become a long-time member of the Baptist Church. She took her children to church and instilled the Word of God in them so that they, too, could become Christians. The following verses were what she believed in:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.” John 3:16-17
Ella is preceded in death by her mother and father, Grecia and Allen Atkins; three brothers, Napolean (Neppie), Buehl (Short) and Eldred ; son-in-law, Felix Davison; her grandson, Jeremy Franks; her husband, Glenn Franks; and daughter, Glenda Franks Davison.
Surviving family members are brother, Earl (Barbara) Atkins; sons, Terry (Sandra) Franks and Marty (Bessie) Franks; daughter, Donna Franks (Ronnie) Howell; Granddaughters, Tracey Franks (Bud) Grimes and Brandie Franks; grandson, Matthew Davison, step-grandsons, Brian and Keith Howell; two great-granddaughters; one great grandson; and six step-grandchildren.
Ella will be waked, along with her daughter, at Radney Funeral Home, 1200 Industrial Parkway, Saraland, Alabama 36571 on Wednesday, June 6 from 9:00 – 11:00 and the funeral will take place at 11:00. A short graveside service will be held afterwards at Valhalla Memorial Funeral Home, 8730 Sims Road, Eight Mile, Alabama 36613.
Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.RadneyFuneralHome-Saraland.com for the Franks family.
