Eulogy

Saturday, I’m honored to play and sing at my Grandmother’s funeral. It is impossible to truly to sum into words a person’s life, their impact, their legacy. This is a Eulogy that will be read, it scratches the surface nicely.

Eulogy

Janet “Frances” Frazier

 

Janet Frances Lynch Frazier was born July, 23, 1920 in Memphis Tenn. to Robert and Janet Lynch.  The Lynch family was of Scotch/Irish descent and her maternal grandparents were Scottish immigrants arriving just before the turn of the twentieth century.  Frances was always very proud of your Scottish roots. Frances had one

sibling, a younger brother, Robert Lynch who has preceded her in death one year ago.

 

Our Mom, Frances, said that her childhood was a happy and safe place.  Her father was a carpenter, mainly a cabinet maker and crafter and her mother was a doting stay at home Mom who played the violin, the piano and was also an accomplished seamstress.    Mom was a beautiful child and her Mother sewed and dressed her in high fashion.  Her parents worked hard to provide for their family during the great depression.

Frances went to Sunday school, but it wasn’t meaningful to her.  The little girls who lived down the street from Mom’s house were preacher’ kids that played with mom because her daddy has built her a playhouse.  They invited mom to go to church with them.

Mom met the love of her life in the 9th grade, our Dad, Sam Frazier.  He was the captain of the basketball team and she was smitten from then on.  As young dating teenagers, Mom and Dad went to Bellevue Baptist Church, went to Sunday school and “walked the aisle” with much encouragement from the young people that they sat with every Sunday night. She later went to the Pastor’s office and talk about asking Christ into her life, but she says that even at that time she didn’t completely understand.

Mom and Dad became seriously involved around the age of 16 and both of their parents intervened at that time and broke up the relationship. Mom moved to an all girls school, which was St. Agnes Academy. Mom and Dad did not see each other for three years.  This hurtful crisis in Mom’s life helped to begin her serious growth in Christ. Mom was a good student, very social and thrived at her new school and she even contemplated becoming a Nun.  Frances became editor of the high school paper and yearbook.

In the Sociality Club, Mom met a new friend, Sara MacDonald.  Sara took her to church and Sara’s Mom was a Bible Study teacher.  One night Mom and Sara went to a “Missionary  Alliance” tent meeting and for the first time Mom heard about the second coming of Christ and that she needed to be “born again.”  That night at home with much wresting in her spirit, as she has said, she gave her heart to the Lord, asked for the forgiveness of her sins and was determined to live her life for Christ.   She began to study her Bible and memorize scripture for the first time in her life.

Mom graduated from high school with all honors and received a scholarship for Sienna Women’s Catholic College.  She was a serious student and at that time felt called to be a teacher.  God also during this time gave her a promise that she would become a “joyful mother of children.”  She was faithfully involved in a nearby Mission church.

Meanwhile, Dad’s family had moved to Missouri but he never forgot about Frances.  When she was 19, a sophomore in college the phone rang and it was Sam.  He was coming to Memphis to see another girl that he was dating but wanted to visit Frances.  Mom and Dad had a short visit and agreed to keep in touch.  By the time the next year rolled around she was officially invited to be part of the Frazier family. When Dad proposed he had invited the whole family to be present as he presented the engagement ring.  As a gesture to confirm the love and acceptance of my Mom into the family, my Dad’s father, took the ring from my Dad’s hand and enthusiastically placed the ring on Mom’s finger himself.  In 1944, Mom and Dad were married in a Baptist church in Victoria Texas where Dad was stationed in the Air Force.  Fortunately, the World War 2 ended just before our Dad was scheduled to be sent overseas.

In fulfilling God’s promise that Mom would be a “joyful mother of children”, our parents produced three children, Samuel Jefferson Frazier III, Janet Rebecca Payne and Judy Ann Brown.  Mom and Dad both genuinely loved the Lord and the churches that they attended.  We didn’t miss church unless we were sick or out of town.  Dad was in the aviation business and when we moved from town to town, a high priority was to establish our family in a new place of worship.

Not only would Mom love and adore her own children but she would love many other children as well.  When her own children were settled in school, she became a teacher to help with the family financial support and also to fulfill that calling. In fact, Mom was actually our sister Judy’s kindergarten teacher.  Mom’s Dad had passed way by that time and our grandmother had moved in to help the family allowing Mom to teach.

Mom was a naturally gifted teacher mostly because of her genuine love of people.  Over the course of her career, she taught  2nd grade,, preschool, 5th grade, 4th grade and then kindergarten.

In 1963 our family moved to Phoenix, Arizona. My Dad was partnering in a new business adventure. He proceeded our family to find a place of residence for us and he actually interviewed for a teaching job for Mom. Evidently he interviewed well, because Mom was offered a teaching position (sight unseen) in the Osborn School District at Encanto School teaching 4th grade.

Our brother was given the privilege of selecting our new church home here in the valley because he was the oldest and a teenager.  Mom and Dad wanted him to be happy with the youth group.  Sam choose the North Phoenix Baptist Church.  Mom and Jan have remained members of that church for 49 years now.  Mom loved the North Phx. Baptist Church.  Our Christian faith remains a high priority in the lives of all three of the Frazier children.

The next year after arriving in Phoenix (well our house was actually located in Glendale)  the State of Arizona established the Kindergarten grade level into the public school system.  Because Mom had previous experience teaching kindergarten in a private church school setting in Missouri, she was asked to be one of the first pioneer kindergarten teachers. She helped to co-author the first kindergarten teaching manuals and guidelines. She taught kindergarten for the remaining 18 years of her career at the Encanto School where she worked with many outstanding individuals one of which was her own son-in-law Fred, who was the Physical Education teacher.  At Encanto Mom established many wonderful life long friends.

 

In the year 1975, our father was tragically killed in an airplane accident and Mom would grieve always for the loss of the “love of her life.”  She would pour herself more fully into her teaching, family and God’s Word for purpose and meaning.

 

She decided to retire from teaching in the year 1982 in order to care for her aging mother and to babysit grandchildren so Jan and Judy could help provide for their families with their teaching careers. She was the most amazing grandmother!  She adored her grandchildren and they adored her. Mom counted herself fortunate in deed to have seven of them, Sam lV, Scott, Sandra, Rob, Christy, Andrew and Aaron.  Those seven grandchildren so far have produced 14 great-grandchildren.  Frances had truly become “a joyful mother of children.”

 

Around the year 2001, Mom was showing signs of dementia, so her house was sold and she went to live with Jan and Fred which has been her home for the past 12 years until her passing on Jan. 1, 2013.  All of her family members have ungrudging helped in her care these past few years because she deserved to always be surrounded by the loving embrace of her children.

 

If she could speak to you now, we know that she would say, “It will be worth it all, when we see Jesus!”

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