Obituary for Frances Inez (Miller) Bacon
July 2, 1937 – October 18, 2019

Frances Inez Miller Bacon, 82, passed away October 18, 2019. Frances was born July 2, 1937 in Choctaw County, Oklahoma and was the daughter of Roy and Mary (Sessums) Miller. Frances grew up in Oklahoma on a farm and picked cotton alongside her family in her early youth until they all packed up, "Grapes of Wrath" style, and moved to Arizona. School and learning was important to Mary Miller, her mom, and Frances graduated from 8th grade as Valedictorian. As a teenager, and like many teenagers at the time, Frances took up smoking. However, when the U.S. Surgeon General's Smoking and Health report came out in 1964 linking smoking cigarettes with lung cancer and heart disease, she quit smoking immediately. She spent the remainder of her adult life trying to talk everyone she knew and loved to quit smoking.

Frances was crazy about her mom, sisters, and brother and the family gatherings in Sedona and Surprise, Arizona were always epic events – often culminating in picnics on the Verde River with plenty of swimming and camp fires or huge pots of pinto beans and many, many pans of enchiladas cooking away in her baby sister Oleta's kitchen. Words simply cannot express how much she cherished her mother, sisters (Vida, Vera, Oleta), and brother (Raymond).

On October 6, 1953, Frances married Arvest Lee Bacon, Jr. and had 5 children. She has 12 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren and adored them all.

Over time, Frances and her family relocated to Arizona, California, and finally settled in Oregon. She lived in Silverton, Oregon for 17 years before moving to Woodburn, Oregon to be closer to her work in tax accounting and bookkeeping. Upon retiring, she joined Arvest in Huntington, Oregon near the Snake River where they had purchased a shell of a log home. By the time she retired, Arvest had finished the interior of the home with the help of many a fishing buddy and former ironworking peer and readied it for her to join him.

Frances loved fishing on the Snake River with her family and picking apricots from the trees on the banks of the river so she could can them, along with the rest of the fresh picked fruits and vegetables she harvested and canned every year for her family. Although cooking wasn't a favorite pastime, she is well-remembered by her kids and grandchildren for her peanut brittle, divinity, yeast rolls at Thanksgiving, and her handmade tortillas. When she first moved to Oregon, one of her chief complaints was the lack of a good tortilla – so she learned how to make them herself and often spent hours in the kitchen before dinner rolling and stretching several dozen flour tortillas for our evening bread. Much later, when Taco Bell popped up everywhere, she would never turn down a green chili burrito and would often treat her children and grandchildren.

Frances wasn't really a big music lover and hated the radio in her car, but Waylon Jennings had her heart anyway, along with Roy Clark, Merle Haggard, Elvis, and Charlie Pride. In Woodburn, Frances had an upright piano in her living room but didn't actually play the piano. Instead, she allowed all her grandchildren and great-grandchildren to pound out their best efforts (often quite badly) and always encouraged them, never complaining. She was extremely loving and protective of all her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

She considered herself an, "Okie from Muscogee" but was happy to live in Oregon where she no longer had to work the cotton fields and encounter rattlesnakes or copperheads along the way! She really, really hated snakes…but never lost her love of where she grew up or her family still living in Oklahoma and Arizona. Picking strawberries and green beans in Silverton, however, were a relief compared to the cotton fields of Oklahoma.
In due time, Frances registered for classes at Chemeketa Community College and learned bookkeeping so she could work year round in an office and support her family with greater stability. She was employed by Earl Doman, CPA, in Woodburn for over 20 years before retiring to Huntington, and was grateful for the kindness and friendship of Earl and his wife Donna and best friend and co-worker Sharon Falardeau.

Frances is survived by her 4 children, Carla, Lisa, Rodney and an estranged son, Mike Bacon. Roger, her eldest son, preceded her in death, as did Arvest, her husband.

Donations can be made in Frances' memory to:

OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital
P.O. Box 29017
Portland, OR 97296
https://www.onwardohsu.org/ways-give

Eulogy - by Sharon Falardeau's
When Frances and I were much, much younger and had become best friends through our association working together with Earl, we had big plans for the future. We planned that when we got old and maybe alone, we would live next door to each other in a duplex. We eventually planned that we would share a room in a nursing home with beds next to each other. I think she was meant to be my friend because we had so many coincidences happen. Unbeknownst to each other, we both bought our first microwaves on the same weekend. Likewise we both happened to be at the beach looking for beach property on the same weekend! (Neither of us ended up with a beach house though!) One day we came to work with matching dresses that we had bought the day before at a bargain price in a local dress shop. Our favorite snacks at the office were Pepsi for her and Coke for me with a Snickers bar. Now you know that we really did know each other so I will share some of her life as I remember it. She was health conscious so together we took weight lifting classes, joined the courthouse, walked and ran at the highschool track. We made a beach trip together and had a grown up slumber party staying up all night talking.

Her accounting endeared her to the individual clients she served. They trusted and respected her. They became her good friends. Many times as I would encounter one of them, they would ask about her - where she was living, what she was doing and then expressing how they missed her.

Did you all know she loved Elvis and followed his life?
Did you know she followed the lives of many great entertainers?
Did you know she was petrified of snakes - even though she grew up in AZ?
Did you know how smart she was and how she valued learning and education?
Did you know she was often called a Debbie Reynolds look alike?
Do you remember her beautiful long wavy hair in her younger years?

I've heard it said that Frances was stubborn! That she was. She would not change her mind on ANYTHING. I used to wonder how she and Earl could talk politics because she was so set in her political view. I tried not to have those conversations with her because she always came out ahead in the arguments. She was more up-to-date and better informed than I ever was. I don't remember who it was, probably Earl, put a Bush sticker on her bumper. In my mind that was the funniest thing ever but she wasn't laughing.

She loved her trips to Arizona to be with her mom and sisters. As one of 5 children she worked hard and played hard with them. Her childhood memories in AZ were far different from the AZ she visited later in life. Her memories were of small towns and schools, rattle snakes and irrigation ditches. She loved her trips to Laughlin with her brother and sister. Although she was very frugal, I think she might have dropped a nickel or two into a slot machine but she never talked about her wins or losses. Frances was a saver! She had been given clothes from one of her sisters and they hung in her closet for 20 years or maybe longer. Parting with them was never an option. She had every card, drawing and picture sent by her grandchildren. If one were to give her a trinket of any kind, she kept it forever. Every gift received indicated the love someone felt for her and she for them thereby becoming a precious keepsake.

Oh my gosh, she loved her children so very much. She used to tell me about each of them and their achievements and success. She worried about each of them if things were not going so well. She was the most excited about the arrival of grandchildren. Children should never be offended because Mom seems to like the grandkids more because that's just how it is with Grandma's. She cherished the moments she spent with each of them.

She was devastated when Tooter passed away. I used to tease her about being a teenage bride as she was only 15 (or maybe it was 16!) when they were so in love marriage was the next step. Oh she was crazy in love with this boy with muscles! She would never consider leaving Huntington because Tooter had made it their retirement home. She was a dedicated wife, mother, grandma and friend. It was difficult to watch her decline after she contracted West Nile Virus. It slowly ate away at her causing continual pain and increased weakness. She spent too many months in and out of care centers. She eventually became a prisoner in her own body which was heart wrenching to watch. She was loved. She will be missed and I can say without a doubt that she truly is in a better place today. Dear friend I miss you and will love you forever.