Rev. Leslie Francis

NORTH ADAMS -- The Rev. Leslie T. Francis, 87, formerly North Adams and Lee, died Friday at the Mayo Nursing Home in Northfield, Vt., where he had resided for four years.

Born in North Adams on Sept. 21, 1918, son of Leslie T. and Helena Fallon Francis, he graduated in 1936 from Drury High School. He also graduated in 1941 from Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., and attended the GE business training course in Schenectady, N.Y., and Pittsfield. He graduated in 1957 from the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Cambridge.

He was ordained to the diaconate at St. John's Episcopal Church in June 1957 and to the priesthood in December that year at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Concord, N.H.

An Army Air Forces veteran of World War II, he served from 1943 to 1946 as a weather observer in Texas.

Father Francis was rector of St. George's Episcopal Church in Lee and vicar of the Church of the Good Shepherd, a diocesan mission in South Lee, from 1959 until leaving in 1969 for a post at the diocesan headquarters in Springfield. He first served as a curate at St. Paul's. He retired in 1983 as rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Barre, Vt. He worked at GE in Pittsfield and in the cost department of the former James Hunter Machine Co., now Morrison Berkshire, before entering the seminary.

He was an avid golfer and longtime Rotarian. While in Lee, he was an organizer of the Lee United Community Fund and chairman of the original youth committee that helped establish the YMCA there. He also resided in Williamstown and West Springfield. He moved to South Burlington, Vt., in 1983 and had resided Twin Oaks Terrace before entering the nursing home.

His wife, the former Dorothea Grace Carmichael, whom he married Dec. 6, 1952, in North Adams, died June 3, 1997.

He leaves a daughter, Meg O'Connor of Barre Town, Vt.; two sons, Robert Francis of Revere and Teddy Francis of Albany, N.Y.; a brother, Richard Francis of Texas; a sister, Helena Baker of Massachusetts, and three grandchildren.

FUNERAL NOTICE -- The funeral for the Rev. Leslie Francis, who died April 1, 2005, will be Saturday, April 9, at 11 in St. John's Episcopal Church, North Adams. Burial will be in the family lot in Eastlawn Cemetery, Williamstown. There will be no calling hours. If friends desire, contributions in his memory may be made to Mayo Health Care through the office of GEORGE M. HOPKINS FUNERAL HOME, 61-67 Spring St., Williamstown, MA 01267. He leaves his grandchildren, Tim O'Connor, Becky Stuart and Andy O'Connor. He was predeceased by a son-in-law, Stephen O'Connor, a grandson, Ryan O'Connor, and two brothers, Edward and John Francis.