Frances Ella (Landon) Black

Frances Ella (Landon) Black of Bellevue lost her battle with ovarian cancer Tuesday, April 13, 2010. She died on her terms, at her home, a kind and compassionate woman, loved by all. She was 87.Frances was born in Williamsport Pennsylvania in 1923 to Clifford Victor (Cranmer) Landon and Mary Gladys Furman. Her family lived and worked in Pennsylvania, Florida, and California before eventually settling in the Northwest where home was first Meadowbrook, Seattle, and then Everett. Frances graduated from Everett High School in 1941, attended Everett Community College and graduated from University of Washington in 1945, with a B.S. in Microbiology. Frances met her future husband, Gordon Gene Black while she was working on the top floor in the food quality lab at Crescent Manufacturing on Dearborn Street in Seattle–he was downstairs, in the basement, in shipping and receiving. Finding lab work too socially isolating for her taste, Frances attended secretarial night school and soon left Crescent to join Union Oil Company on Western Avenue as an executive secretary where she worked for the next few years. Favorite dating destinations for Frances and Gordon were the Twin Teepees on Aurora, the Woodland Park Zoo and the hydroplane races on Lake Washington. They were married June 19, 1954 and lived briefly in San Francisco in Little Reed Heights in Marin County. The couple returned to Seattle in 1956 when Gordon was offered a sales management position with Crescent. They purchased their dream home in the Eastside’s unique collaborative community, Hilltop Community, where she and Gordon lived for the next 44 years. Daughter Mary Abigail was born in 1957. Frances found great happiness in her loving marriage with Gordon and took great pleasure and pride in raising “Abby”. She also enjoyed volunteering for Hilltop Community, the PTA, the school library and the Eastshore Unitarian Church. A dedicated Bluebird leader and Campfire Girl volunteer, she helped create wonderful childhood memories for the Bluebirds at Eastgate Elementary in the late sixties. Once, on a Bluebird overnight in early spring at a remote campground, she rigged the entrance of the shelter with a string and bell, just in case of bears, but instead ended up trapping Gordon as he came by the next morning to see how things were going.For Frances, only the Merl Reagle’s crossword puzzle would do, even if it took her all week to complete. Other favorite pastimes were attending plays, operas, and concerts, small ship cruising adventures with her daughter, playing cribbage, searching for good books at the Lakehills Library, and being a “grandpal” at Phantom Lake Elementary. She treasured all things British, especially Masterpiece Theatre and Monty Python on Channel 9. Many family gatherings included endless bouts of laughter over silly things, groan-inducing puns and descriptions of “trifling events with the circumstantial pomp of great ones”. Her true passion, though, was gardening, as her well worn copy of Sunset Magazine’s Western Garden book shows. Frances was diagnosed with Stage IV ovarian cancer in 2000. Statistics were poor for survival. However, she beat the odds and bravely faced multiple chemotherapy and radiation treatments and dealt with side effects as they cropped up while maintaining her grace and dignity, independence and humor. She is forever grateful to Dr. Kathryn Crossland and the staff at Over-lake for expertly managing her care and giving her (and all of us) the gift of 10 more years of living life to its fullest. She is preceded in death by her husband Gordon, and leaves behind her daughter, Abby Black Ismond (Alan) of Bellevue, who loved her more than words can describe, and her beloved “grand-kitty” Casey. She is survived by sister, Mary Elizabeth Landon Burns-Haley of Renton, brother Thomas Edward Landon (Joyce) of Clinton, and her nieces and nephews, Linda, Norman, Marc, Tim, David, Lois, and Sharon. Her family and her dear friends, especially Andy, will miss her warm, kind, gentle heart.A celebration of Frances’s life will be held at the Bellevue Family YMCA on Bel-Red Rd. on May 16 at 1:00 pm. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations be made to the Marcia Rivkin Center for Ovarian Cancer Research, KCTS 9 television or Meow Cat Rescue of Kirkland.