Ethel Victoria Franck

ETHEL VICTORIA FRANCK
ITHACA - Mrs. Ethel Victoria Franck, of 600 Warren Road, passed away on Easter morning, after a life devoted to loving and helping others, especially her family.
She was born in 1921 in Hungary to Josef and Julia Kayel. The Kayels, including Ethel's older sister, Priscilla, emigrated from their small family farm in what is now Slovakia to Manhattan when Ethel was six years old. Her love of the New York City area began with happy childhood experiences with its various ethnic communities. She came to excel in a selective public high school while following her special interests in literature and psychology. After graduating from Katherine Gibbs secretarial school, she helped her family through the Great Depression with employment at firms that included West Virginia Pulp and Paper and the trade journal, "Modern Industry", developing what became a lifelong interest in business and finance. She also met her lucky husband-to-be, Carl A. Franck, who later fought with the US Army in Battle of the Bulge. With the end of the war, Ethel and Carl married and began their family which came to include Susan, Richard and Carl. The Francks lived north of NYS in Mount Vernon, then Yonkers, and finally Greenburg. Her husband's work as a traveling salesman in the automotive industry kept him on the road for many days at a time. Ethel and Carl gamely dealt with this separation. Ethel also proudly assumed most of the responsibility of homemaking and child-raising. While serving as the home office manager for Carl's work. Ethel helped at a home for disturbed children, served in the main office of the Edgemont High School, helped sustain the Greenville community reformed church and worked for many years as a secretary in the accounting firms of Donald J. Guarnieri. In this last position, her interest and expertise in finance and the relationships that drive commerce greatly expanded. She always enjoyed the cultural offerings of the New York City area, especially live theater. At home, she practiced crafts from childhood such as crocheting and knitting. Her favorite personal sport was swimming.
A devoted daughter and sister, she helped unite the traditions of the Kayel and Franck families. This included holiday celebrations that featured the food of Hungary. She served as a wonderful aunt for her wonderful nieces and nephews and eventually their offspring. Ethel saw to it that her own children received all the love in this world, the best possible starts on life and in time continual guidance in establishing their own families. She welcomed into her family through marriage, Philippe Bernard to Susan in France, and Zsofia Vali to Carl in Ithaca; and later grandchildren, Antoine and Matthew of Susan and Philippe; and Nathan, Sophia and David of Zsofia and Carl. She ceaselessly encouraged, helped guide, and enabled and enjoyed her children's and grandchildren's studies, careers and pursuits. Their retirements returned to Ethel and Carl their full time to enjoy their marriage. They seized this opportunity to re-acquaint themselves with friends from the time when they themselves first met. With the passing of her husband, she sadly left many friends down state in order to join Carl, Zsofia, Nathan, Sophia and David in Ithaca for the past several years. Some of her happiest memories in recent years have included many family occasions, big and small, gatherings of Ithaca's seniors groups, her membership in the First Congregational Church, reunions of her husband's Army company, helping Northeast Elementary school's children in their school library, and her family visits across the Northeast and over seas to France, and finally back to Hungary.
Ethel's surviving family includes her sister, Priscilla; daughter, Susan; daughter-in-law, Zsofia; sons, Richard and Carl; and grandchildren, Antoine, Matthew, Nathan, Sophia and David.
Her family invites all persons to a memorial service this Saturday, March 29, at 3 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 309 Highland Road, Ithaca. The service will be conducted by Reverend Catherine E. Taylor. Donations in Ethel's memory to the DeWitt Student Activities Field Trip Scholarship Fund, DeWitt Middle School, 560 Warren Road, Ithaca, NY 14850, would be gratefully accepted.