Frankie Stegall

STEGALL, Frankie

Frankie Wallace Stegall of Atlanta, Georgia, passed away on March 24, 2024 at the age of 87.

A native of LaFayette, Alabama, Frankie graduated Jacksonville University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in 1959. She married and moved to Atlanta in 1960, and by 1963 she was a recent divorcee with a young child who chose to enter the medical field as an Orthoptist, a profession that she had only known of for a short time, but to which she was inexorably drawn.

After graduating Emory University's Orthoptic Training School in 1965, she went on to a most remarkable and distinguished career as Chief Orthoptist and Director of Emory's Orthoptic/Ophthalmic Program, and as an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Emory Medical School (retired Professor Emerita, Ophthalmology).

In addition, she was an international leader in Orthoptics, having been published and having lectured across much of The United States, Europe and Asia, and having won several awards for her significant contributions to Orthoptics and Ophthalmology.

Over her career, her medical acumen helped countless thousands upon thousands of adults and children to see better, and her teaching and pre-operative consultations helped many, many Ophthalmic surgeons to achieve excellent surgical results.

And over her life, she developed many long lasting, loving friends, in whose company she delighted, and with whom she shared a mutual enrichment of life. She was a loyal, generous, witty and insightful friend.

She was a wonderful mother to her son, J. Ron Stegall, Jr. and her daughter-in-law, Dr. Stephanie Anderson Stegall; a wonderful grandmother to her twin granddaughters, Katherine Mae Stegall and Molly Grace Stegall (all of Chattanooga, TN); and a wonderful first cousin to her lifelong best friend, Betty McClain of Marietta, GA.

She was preceded in death by her father and mother, R.C. Wallace Sr. and Louise Wallace; and her brother, R.C. Wallace, Jr., all of LaFayette, AL.

A graveside service will be held on Friday, March 29, 2024, 1:00 PM (Central Time) at the LaFayette Cemetery.