Fanny Jean Ross

Fanny Jean Ross, 97, of Kansas City, Missouri, passed away Thursday, December 20, 2007. Visitation will be Thursday, December 27 from 9:30 to 10:50 a.m., at the Church of the Nativity, 3800 West 119th, Leawood, KS. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11:00 a.m., also at the Church, with burial following in Mt. Olivet Cemetery, 7601 Blue Ridge Blvd., Kansas City, MO. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial contributions in Fanny's name be made to either Rockhurst High School or Catholic Charities Hospice, 9740 W. 87th St., Overland Park, KS 66212. Fanny was born July 23, 1910, to John and Adele (Raimo) DeFeo and was the youngest of seven children. She was a graduate of St. Agnes Academy and Jane Hayes Gates School for Girls, and then worked in the family business, DeFeo Fruit Company, until her marriage to Frank J. Ross in 1935. Frank and Fanny worked together to build Il Pagliaccio, the city's first Italian restaurant founded by Frank's parents in 1908. She is preceded in death by her husband, Frank, who died in 1972, and all of her sisters and brothers. Fanny was an active member of Holy Rosary, Assumption and Holy Cross Parishes. She was the first president of the American Daughters of Columbus in 1968, and was later honored by that organization as the Woman of the Year in 1990. Fanny was a loving and devoted mother to her three children, Joe Ross, Donna Slaughter and Frank Ross, Jr., and their spouses, Bonnie Ross, Leonard Slaughter and Barclay Ross and a loving and devoted grandmother and great- grandmother to her ten grandchildren and twenty great- grandchildren. (Arr. McGilley State Line Chapel – 816-942-6180)