Obituary of Frances W. Brown

CARTHAGE – Frances Elizabeth Walker Lanpher Brown, 97, died on Monday evening, April 23, 2018 at the Country Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, where she had been a resident since 2010.

Fran was born in July 15, 1920 in Watertown, the daughter of the late John Vincent and Helen Brownell Walker; she graduated from Carthage High School in 1938. Her brother, James Walker, died after coming home from World War II. She married George Eugene Lanpher on November 22, 1941.  George died on September 4, 1985.  She married Richard Brown on November 15, 1986; they resided in the Syracuse area and in Ocean Ridge, FL.  Richard passed away on October 16, 2007. 

Prior to her marriage to George, she worked at the Carthage License Bureau, later she worked summers as a school census taker.  After her children were grown, she worked at the former Carthage Marine Bank and the Carthage Area Hospital Accounting Department before doing the books for the family business, Dave’s Body Shop in West Carthage and for the Carthage Chamber of Commerce, taking her husband’s place after he died.

She enjoyed traveling and was a talented seamstress, making suits for her husband, bridal gowns and endless outfits for her friends and family.  She also wrote music for church and a ladies’ quartet.  She loved doing needlepoint, especially designing the patterns.  She designed and made altar kneelers and church hangings with the help of the others she taught, for Grace Church as well as other Episcopal churches as she moved from one area to another.

Frances was a devoted member of Grace Episcopal Church, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Vermont Society of Mayflower Descendants, the 4 River Valley Historical Society, a former member of the Carthage Music Club, the Daughters of the Nile, the Order of the Eastern Star, the Grace Church Choir and the Episcopal Church Women.

She is survived by two children, Jeanette Helen “Jeannie” Fox and David Roland (Sandra) Lanpher, both of Carthage, her step son, R. Lee Brown, Seattle, WA, step daughters, Lynn Giroux, Springville, NY, Betty Wall, Delmar, NY and Cindy Whitehurst, St. Croix, VI; 18 grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren, a cousin, Joseph Brownell of Cortland and his children and grandchildren.

Besides her husbands and brother, she is predeceased by her son, Loren James Lanpher, who died on September 7, 1980.

Calling hours will be held on Saturday, April 28^th from 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM at the Grace Episcopal Church, Carthage, followed by a funeral mass at 1:00 PM.  Burial will follow in Hillside Cemetery, West Carthage.  Arrangements are being handled by the Lundy Funeral Home & Cremation Service, Inc., 500 State St., Carthage.

Memorial contributions can be made to the Grace Episcopal Church, 421 State St., Carthage, NY 13619 or the Shriners Hospitals for Children, www.shrinershospitalsforchildren.org/shc/donate.  Condolences can be made online at www.lundyfuneralhome.com.

To plant a beautiful memorial tree in memory of Frances Brown, please visit our Tree Store