Frances Ann DeMotto

Frances Ann DeMotto, age 74 years, a resident of Elkins, WV departed this life Saturday afternoon, November 23, 2013 at the Valentine Personal Care Home at Beverly, WV. She was born Saturday, December 31, 1938 at Coalton, WV a daughter of the late Gustava Thomas "Sunday" and Martha Ann Bell DeMotto. She had never married. Surviving are one brother, Lorren "Hugh" DeMotto and wife Maggie, of Red Creek; one sister, Helen "Midge" Silvester, of Elkins; and several nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by one brother in law, Vincent "Fred" Silvester. She was a graduate of Buckhannon High School and the Davis Memorial Hospital School of Nursing. She also received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from West Virginia Wesleyan College at Buckhannon and her Masters of Science in Nursing from West Virginia University at Morgantown with the advanced degree of Nurse Practitioner from WVU's first Nurse Practitioner Program in 1977. Frances was a licensed registered nurse for almost forty years. She began her practice in 1961 at John Hopkins Hospital at Baltimore, MD, then at the National Institute of Health and then the Cancer Institute at Bethesda, MD through the 1960's. She had worked as the Director of Nursing at Davis Memorial Hospital during the 1980's. She spent the remainder of her career with the Veterans Administration, of which she was in the investigative department, retiring on January 1, 2008. She was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society in Nursing and held membership in the Alpha Rho Chapter # 39. She was an avid reader and was a member of the Northern Library Network to which she often donated books. Following her retirement she began writing song lyrics, poetry and prose. She was a member of the West Virginia Writers Inc., and in 2008 won an award for her poetry at the West Virginia Writers Annual Conference. Her poem "Thirteen Souls, One More Load" was one of several published in the Library of Congress and was later recorded as a song. She became a member of ASCAP in 2007, and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Her poems, "Walkin Man" and "Thirteen Souls, One More Load" were self-published and sold at the local bookstore. In the hope that she might help others, Frances made an anatomical gift to the Human Gift Registry at West Virginia University for the advancement of scientific research and medical education.