Suzanne C. Franck

Suzanne Cecilia (Taylor) Franck, 88, of Hockessin, died December 26, 2018, in the Compassionate Care hospice of St. Francis Hospital, Wilmington, after several weeks’ hospitalization for an acute illness. Born in Wilmington in 1930 to Kendall and Ann Terranova Taylor, Suzanne was raised by her mother and her grandparents, Angelo and Susannah Terranova, at Fourth and Tatnall Streets, living above the premises of The 400 Club, the bar built by her grandfather and later owned by her mother. She attended St. Peter Cathedral School, and graduated in 1948 from Ursuline Academy. Later she took courses at Goldey Beacom College and briefly pursued a secretarial career.

In 1950, during a brief first marriage to Ivan Starr, she bore a son. In July 1955, she married Peter Whitehill Franck, of New Hope, Pennsylvania, and they settled in Claymont, where they had two more children. In Claymont and in Hockessin, where she and Peter moved their family in 1966, Suzanne dedicated herself to rearing her children and to the fine art of cooking. A lifelong reader with wide literary tastes and a deep interest in history, she and her husband filled their house with books, and she always had a pencil ready to correct solecisms in whatever she was reading.

Suzanne’s community activity over the years included volunteer service at St. Francis Hospital, tutoring gifted students in advanced reading at H.B. duPont Middle School, serving as a lector and on various committees at St. Mary of the Assumption parish in Hockessin, and being copy editor of the Hockessin Community News.

Suzanne Franck is survived by her son David L. Starr of Montreal; by her daughter Ellen R. Franck, her grandson Tye Parsons, her granddaughter Honor Parsons, her granddaughter Rachel Woodbury (Grant), and great-grandsons Peter and Henry Woodbury, all of St. George, UT; by her son Matthew J. Franck (Gwen) of Lawrenceville, NJ; by her sister-in-law Patricia Sheffield of New Jersey; and by her nieces and nephews Patricia Durborow, Oscar Huettner, Alison Huettner, Steven Huettner, and Charles Huettner. She was preceded in death by her husband of 63 years, Peter W. Franck, by her sister Jane Govatos, and by her grandson Benjamin Parsons.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at the Cathedral of St. Peter, 500 N. West St., Wilmington, DE 19801 at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, December 31, 2018. Interment will follow at Hockessin Friends Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family encourages friends to give to the St. Peter Cathedral School, or to St. Francis Hospital, where Suzanne received the most professional care in the final weeks of her life.