Francis Miller Macy was born in 1931 during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. As a small child, she attended Irving School, a one-room school in South Logan County. In the fifth grade, her family moved to a farm near Crescent where she and her sisters walked three-quarters of a mile to catch the bus to the Crescent Public Schools. Frances graduated from Crescent High School in 1949, always an Honor Roll student while involved in many activities. She received the Logan County Grand Champion 4-H Club Award for her excellence in sewing and design and the coveted Danforth Award upon graduation.
She attended Central State College (now U.C.O.), graduating in just three years all the while working to pay her own tuition. After college, she married her high school sweetheart, Phil Macy (Crescent 1948). She and Phil lived on both the East coast and West coast while Phil served in the Navy. They spent the next forty years in St. Louis, working and raising their daughters, Robin and Amy. Upon retirement, they relocated to Edmond, Oklahoma in 1997. Happily, their small granddaughters, Millie and Emma, live near Frances and Phil, a great team since Crescent High continue to inspire colleagues, neighbors and family with their boundless spirit and unstoppable energy.
Frances, an honored respected educator, earned her Masters Degree from Webster College, and was an innovative contributor in her professional field of early childhood education. She taught for 32 years as a first grad teacher. Over those years of outstanding service, she earned special recognition as Parkway Teacher of the Year, the Parkway Pillar Award (the district's highest award) and Missouri's Outstanding Teacher-Leader award. She attended Yale University's Gesell Institute and became the political voice for early childhood initiatives, testifying many times before the Missouri House and Senate, successfully affecting legislation on behalf of children. Frances became a Gesell lecturer, consultant and advocate for the developmentally delayed child. She served four years as chairman of the statewide legislative committee for Missour State Teachers Association. For eight years she also served on the certification committee for the Missouri Department of Education.
Since coming to Oklahoma, Frances' lifelong interest in learning and service has found new avenues:
* She earned a Master Gardener's Certificate at OSU.
* She restored the 100 year old Murry-Wilson-Macy family farmstead, Bluebird Farm, north of Crescent (earning a state Centennial Landmark designation and the Foucart Award for Preservation)
* She was the director of the Children's and Family Activities for the Internation Bluegrass Festival in Guthrie for four years.
* She volunteered as a docent at the Oklahoma Historical Society (children's division)
* She was a docent at the Oklahoma City Art Museum and served as a lecturer for the Smithsonian Art Train for five Oklahoma school districts.
* She has been a member of the Logan County Historical Society Board, the area wide Aging Council and the OSU Extension Council.
Currently, Frances is a member of Edmond Newcomes Club, the Edmond Art Association and Edmond Book Club. In 2002, she had a one-woman art show at the Crescent Frontier Museum. Her long-held dream of "time for painting" was evident in her work, illustrating Logan County scenes from her youth. Since moving to the area, she and Phil have built two houses and remodeled a third while volunteering in Kansas at a family-owned arboretum and carefully tending to aging relatives. She has recently organized the upcoming "A Walk in Three Country Garens", benefitting the Frontier Museum. Additionally, she is chairman of her Class of 1949 60th Reunion, July 4th in Crescent.
A true daughter of Crescent, Frances' memories of remote farm life without electricity or running water and her inspiring Crescent teachers, such as Mrs. Culp, Mrs. Hopkins and Mr. Dzur; coupled with a fulfilling personal and professional life and the knowledge and experience from travel in the wider world, give evidence that, in fact, in Frances Miller Macy's life, you can go home again...and love it.