Frances Geballe

1921 - 2019

Frances Koshland Geballe

Frances Koshland Geballe (née Frances Corinne Koshland), known to her friends as Sissy, died on October 4, 2019, surrounded by her family and loved ones. Born on August 14, 1921 to Daniel Edward and Eleanor Haas Koshland in Manhattan, she grew up in the Bay Area in a storybook neoclassical house with her older brother, Daniel Edward Koshland, Jr., and younger sister, Phyllis Koshland Friedman. She thought of her parents as the golden couple, even as her mother lived with multiple sclerosis from a young age. Sissy attended UC Berkeley, studying English and philosophy. In 1941, she married Theodore Geballe. After he completed his overseas service in World War II, they lived for several happy years in Berkeley while he completed his graduate work. With three young children, they moved to New Jersey for 15 years, where she began lifelong friendships. In 1968, the family moved back to the Bay Area (Woodside), where she raised three more children and later two grandchildren, and made more close friends. Her whole life was full of beauty, humor, curiosity, and irreverence.

She was passionate about education and literature, politics and world affairs. Volunteering time reading with elementary school children brought her immense pleasure. Her interests were expansive and growing. She loved spending time almost every summer since the age of 7 in Glenbrook, Nevada, on the shore of Lake Tahoe. Her large extended family and friends near and far received continual communications of witticisms and advice (solicited and unsolicited). She felt fortunate to know and love her grandchildren and their children.

She is survived by her husband of 77 years, 6 children, 16 grandchildren, 9 great-grandchildren, and friends young and old, with each of whom she relished a rare closeness. For the past 3 years, she counted on and adored her devoted caregivers. She felt the genuine support of a multitude.

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