Frances “Fran” White Geberth, who for nearly ten decades brought joy to her family and local communities by painting both with words and watercolor her love of tradition and history, died peacefully at her home on Wednesday, March 19. She was 99.
Born May 9, 1925, in Mount Vernon, N.Y., to Milo J. and Frances Bame White, also of Mount Vernon, N.Y., Fran began her long life making brief trips between her uncle’s dairy farm in upstate New York and traveling to New York City with her mother to see museums and theaters. These experiences offered her the best of two worlds that would combine to define her role as a mother, homemaker and artist.
Growing up, she attended public schools in Mount Vernon, later studying at Brantwood Hall, a now-defunct private girls’ high school in Bronxville, N.Y. She enrolled in Parsons School of Design in New York City, graduating in 1947 after studying advertising design and art history. But her artistic interests would ultimately draw her to landscape and waterfront subjects in watercolor and oil, and her later work would be featured not only in multiple juried art shows but also in corporate and private collections in Germany, Taiwan, France and several other countries.
But before any of this, and not long after her time at Parsons, Fran met William “Bill” J. Geberth at a Christmas party in town. They married soon after, on June 27, 1948, and in their first years of marriage, Bill, a master carpenter who had served in the Pacific as an engineer in World War II, continued working for the New York Central Railroad while they raised their daughters, Elizabeth and Deborah. Fran worked as a publisher’s assistant in New York City and, after a short stint in retail selling gloves and small leather goods at Gimbels department store, studied bookkeeping and began working for a local internist in 1957, starting as an office manager and then promoting to lab and x-ray technician and finally medical assistant. She would maintain an interest in medicine for the rest of her life, later working as an office manager for an optometrist in Yarmouth after moving to Harwich.
Fran first vacationed on Cape Cod in 1947 and returned the following year to honeymoon in Chatham. After two decades of family vacations in South Chatham, in 1970, Fran and Bill began work building their retirement home in Harwich. After Bill retired, they finally moved to the Cape in 1975.
She continued her passion for art once in Harwich, and after retiring from managing the optometrist’s office, devoted herself full time to painting. She later became a founding member of the Guild of Harwich Artists, serving in every elected position including president, and taught watercolor painting privately and for Harwich Adult Education before putting her brushes away for the last time at age 90. She was listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who of American Women and Outstanding Artists and Designers of the 20th Century.
But Fran’s interests stretched beyond just painting. It was her fascination with the history of costume that drew her to the Harwich Historical Society at Brooks Academy, where she served as president among many other roles. She and Bill also volunteered for a season at the Harwich Junior Theater. Fran was a 12th-generation Mayflower descendant and they joined the Mayflower Society in Plymouth, which further spurred her devotion to researching and sharing family history and genealogy. Before Bill passed in 2011, they both were members of the First Congregational Church in Harwich and Brewster Baptist Church, where Fran continued attending for many years.
Fran loved reading biographies and mysteries and was fond of cats and horses, music, board games, baking and knitting, among many other things. She was well-read, quick-witted, clever and resourceful, and could as easily engage in banter as keep her head in a crisis.
She is survived by her daughters Elizabeth Moisan of Harwich and Deborah Deverick of Camby, Indiana; her grandsons Max Deverick and his wife Jenee of Camby, Indiana, Elvis Dahl and his wife Tinsley of Indianapolis, Indiana, and Andrew Moisan and his wife Anita of Front Royal, Virgina; and her great-grandchildren Isabelle, Lillian, Alice, and Dylan Deverick, all of Camby, Indiana.
A private burial will be held March 31 at the National Cemetery in Bourne, followed by an 11 AM memorial service and reception at Brewster Baptist Church, Rt 6A in Brewster. Doane, Beal & Ames Funeral Home in West Harwich is handling all arrangements.
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