Frances (Fran), 92, passed away on August 21, 2020. She was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 5, 1927. Her parents, Frank J. Knaus and Antoinette M. Retzer were emigrants from the former Austria/Serbia area of Europe.
Fran and her mother moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she attended St. Mary’s of the Lake Grammar School and St. Gregory the Great High School. While in high school, she met her future husband, Joseph A. Jungblut. Fran and Joe were married shortly after he returned from serving in the Army during World War II.
The couple made their first home in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago, where they welcomed three children into the world: Joseph, Jr., Janice and Mark. After deciding to leave the city, they moved to the suburb of Wheaton where they welcomed three more children: Matthew, Peter and Andrew.
While raising the children, Fran was a homemaker as well as an active member of the DuPage Art League. She won several art awards in both ceramics and quilting. Her most notable award was for a ceramic cake that she made for the American bicentennial celebration in 1976. She was an avid bridge player and enjoyed playing trivia – especially the home version of Jeopardy.
Fran nurtured the love of travel at an early age while touring the United States with her father – seeing such sights as the Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore and attending the 1939 World’s Fair. After Joe’s retirement, Fran and Joe had the opportunity to travel extensively. They enjoyed several cruises and brought back memories of the places they had visited, such as the Panama Canal, Alaska, Italy, and Greece.
In 2011, a couple of years after Joe’s passing, Fran decided to move to The Villages, Florida. While living there, she continued her artistic pursuits by learning to paint watercolors. She took private lessons as well as group classes to improve her techniques, and was involved in several art shows and exhibitions. She continued to play bridge, but added Bunco and Samba to her list of enjoyments. She also took great pleasure in attending social get-togethers with her friends and neighbors in the Village of Buttonwood Heights.
Fran is survived by four children (Janice and Mark preceded her in death), twelve grandchildren, and thirteen great-grandchildren.
Join the conversation on Villages-News.com