MU| A r c h i v e s
Frances Smith ’39 Thomas
‘Aunt Fran’ was a friend of the civil rights movement
C
oretta Scott King’s
children called her
“Aunt Fran” and
found comfort in
her care after their
father’s murder.
She also was the reason that
Jean Childs ’54 Young and her
two older sisters, Cora Childs
’51 Moore and Norma Childs
’48 de Paur, ventured from
segregated Alabama to earn
their degrees at Manchester.
In her 81 years on Earth,
Frances Smith ’39 Thomas
was many things to many people. But to nearly everyone, she was an
inspiration.
Born in Lima, Ohio, in 1917, Frances grew up in Columbia City, Ind.,
where she excelled in instrumental music and won a national award
for playing the trumpet. Though music would bring her great joy in
life, Frances found her calling as a peace and civil rights activist at
Manchester. Her mentor was longtime professor and dean Andrew
Cordier, who later helped chart the United Nations.
Cordier’s “prescription for Fran was to make a difference in a person’s
life,” then-President Parker Marden told mourners at Fran’s memorial
service in Petersime Chapel in 1999. “When I look at the work of Fran
Thomas from the College’s perspective, I must marvel at how much our
expressed mission today draws from her witness for peace and justice.”
Celebrating Fran’s life, added Marden, “reminds us of the power
of teachers and mentors, how lives were changed because someone
touched another.”
As a Manchester student, Fran played in the band and orchestra,
worked on the Aurora and Oak Leaves staffs, and was active in
speech, debate and the International Relations Club. The summer
of her junior year, she met Cecil Thomas, a Quaker, at an American
Friends Service Committee (AFSC) work camp in California.
They shared a vision, fell in love and were married by Cordier in
Richmond, Ind., in 1941.
As newlyweds, the Thomases turned down a more comfortable
teaching offer and headed to a small African-American school in
Marion, Ala. At Lincoln High School, Cecil taught social studies,
physical education and coached the basketball team, while Fran
worked as the principal’s secretary and taught instrumental music.
Among her music students were Coretta Scott, future wife of civil
rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., and Cora and Norma Childs,
older sisters of Jean Childs, the future wife of Andrew Young, one
of King’s closest friends.
Fran and Cecil were role models and mentors for Lincoln students
who scarcely could imagine a life beyond Jim Crow. “Fran Thomas
made it possible for them to realize their potential in a world that
simply was not that understanding of possibility,” said Marden.
At Lincoln, Fran’s influence led all three Childs sisters to study at
her alma mater, Manchester. The Scott sisters – Coretta and Edythe
– headed to another liberal arts institution – Antioch College in
Yellow Springs, Ohio. To help outfit Coretta for college, Fran
collected clothing from the Quaker clothing bank. Coretta would
eventually wear one of those outfits – a light blue suit – on her first
date with Martin Luther King Jr. while she was a student at the
New England Conservatory of Music and he was a doctoral
student at Boston University.
A rchives
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