In Memoriam: Frances D. Alleman-Luce, 1924 - 2001

New York, N.Y.   Born in 1924 in Hingham, Mass., Frances Dudley Alleman-Luce (Fran) graduated from Hingham High School and Wheelock College in Brookline, Mass.  Following World War II, she married Stanford Leonard Luce, giving her birth to their first child, Stanford Crocker Luce (Sandy), in New Haven, Conn.  Marian Eliza Luce (Molly) was born two years later in Worcester, Mass.

In 1952 the family moved to Oxford, Ohio where, Richard Livingston Luce (Rick) and James Jay Dudley Luce (Jim) were born.  In 1964-65, the family spent a year in Paris, only to return to a nation in turmoil, with racial prejudice and the Vietnam War stirring the conscious of America.

Fran played an active role with both the NAACP and the training of the Freedom Riders as they gathered in Oxford before their bus rides down to Mississippi.  In 1969, Fran completed her masters' degree in Educational Psychology at Miami University in Ohio.

Following her divorce in 1972, she moved to Marietta, Ohio with her then 12-year old son Jim to begin her career as a school psychologist.  In Marietta, she was active in the local theater, and hosted an AFS student from Japan.

After her retirement, Fran moved back to Brookline, where she became involved with the P.E.O. Sisterhood - a philanthropic organization dedicated to bringing increased educational opportunities to women.

She was staying with her son Jim on Roosevelt Island in New York, where she had hoped to relocate.  She passed away March 1, 2001, and was memorialized at the Madison Avenue Baptist Church in New York on March 24.  Her ashes were interred over the summer in the Dudley Alleman Memorial Garden of St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church in Hingham.

Fran was survived by both her brother, Dudley Alleman, Jr. of New London, N.H., and her sister, Irene Alleman Beale of Geneseo, N.Y., in addition to her oldest son, Stan, who today lives north of Boston, her daughter Molly who lives west of Chicago, her middle son Rick in Austin, and her youngest son, Jim in New York.  Her son Rick passed on from his battle with cancer shortly after Fran's death; he was a member of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Austin.

OTHER RELATED LINK

State Tributes  -  Organizational Tributes

Personal Tributes  -  Memorial Service  -  Interment

Talk on the Psychological Determinants of a Woman's Role

Access Tribute Photos:

1977: Fran worked as a school psychologist, Warren Local Schools outside Marietta, OH

1994: Fran with son Jim Luce on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, Autumn

1995: Fran at the wedding of Rick and Kathy Luce, Austin, Texas

Other Links:

AFS Exchange Program

Holy Trinity Episcopal Church

Miami University, Oxford, Ohio

N.A.A.C.P. National Office

Orphans International

P.E.O. Sisterhood

Roosevelt Island Kaffee Klatches

St. John the Evangelist Episcopal

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church

Wheelock College

On-Line Obituaries:

Beliefnet - Memorial

Oxford Press  (Oxford, Ohio)

Virtual Memorial Garden

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