Frances Grant Loring

FRANCES GRANT LORING, Attorney at Law, sixth generation Memphian, and member of the Early Settlers of Shelby County died January 15, 2009. Daughter of the late Samuel Grant and Julia Alexander Loring, she was born March 14, 1923. She graduated from Humes High School as Valedictorian of her class. While an undergraduate at Vanderbilt University, she was a member of Gamma Phi Beta. Having earned her Law degree from the Vanderbilt School of Law, at age twenty-one, she tied for the highest grade in Tennessee when she took the bar exam. For five years she was affiliated with the law firm of Snowden, Davis, Brown and McCloy, and was introduced to the United States Supreme Court during that time. She was a member of the League of Women Voters. She was always active in multiple civic affairs, including having marched with Dr. Martin Luther King when he was in Memphis during the sanitation strike. Always a practicing Catholic, she left Memphis in 1949 to become a Religious of the Cenacle and was stationed at Ronkonkoma, NY, Chicago, New Orleans, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Sacramento and Rome, Italy. In 1965 she was given permission to leave the order after which she received a PhD in Theology, and subsequently taught Theology at Christian Brothers College in Memphis. Following her tenure there, she returned to the private practice of law in Memphis. She was interested in researching information on Marion Griffin, the first Afro-American woman attorney, and saw that a marker to Miss Griffin was erected in downtown Memphis. Yearly a deserving Memphis woman attorney is recognized as having received the Frances Loring/Marion Griffin Award. She was a remarkable person who influenced so many people with her intellect and convictions. There will never be another woman like her. She is survived by her sister, Virginia Loring Bellew of Greenville, SC; her niece, Frances Bellew DeHart and husband, Dr. H. Sykes De Hart; and her nephew, Henry Julian Bellew and wife Julia, all of Greenville, SC. She is also survived by nephews L. N. Bellew, Jr. and wife Patsy of Charleston, SC, Lee Alexander Bellew and wife Susannah of Toccoa, GA, and Howard Loring Bellew of Central, SC. Also great-nieces, Beth DeHart Richardson and husband Bob of Harrisonburg, VA, Ellis Loring Bellew and Anna Alexander Bellew of Greenville, SC; great-nephews, Henry S. DeHart and wife Ana of New Bern, NC and William Patrick DeHart of Greenville, SC and great-great-nieces and nephews, Patrick DeHart, Loring and Ward DeHart and John Sykes and Abby Richardson. For years she had been a Eucharistic Minister at St. Patrick Catholic Church where the Funeral Mass will be celebrated, Wednesday, January 21 at 10 a.m. with interment following in the Loring family lot in Elmwood Cemetery. Donations may be made to St. Patrick Catholic Church, Our Lady of Sorrows Church, or to the charity of the donor’s choice. Canale Funeral Directors 901-452-6400