Franne Lee

Franne Lee, artist, designer, teacher, mother, sister, grandmother, great grandmother, friend and all-around life of the party, died peacefully after a short illness on August 27, 2023. Born in the Bronx on December 30, 1941 to Martin and Anne Newman, Franne always had a creative side. She had decided to pursue painting when she discovered a love for theater set and costume design while at the University of Wisconsin, Madison where she was enrolled as a M.F.A. painting student. By then she was married to her first husband, Ralph Sandler and had two small children, Stacy and Geoffrey Sandler. Ralph’s career took the family to Pennsylvania where Franne continued to work on theater design projects. Franne and Ralph were divorced in 1967.

After the divorce, Franne moved back to New York and found work sewing costumes for small theaters. One day in 1968, she saw an ad in the Village Voice seeking volunteers to help artist Ruffin Cooper launch a new club in SoHo called Cerebrum. The club was open less than a year, but the people Franne met and the world that was opened to her changed her life.

A “cabaret for the mind’’ was how a Life magazine cover story described Cerebrum. Franne and her friend Betty Resch were guides at Cerebrum. Betty is currently the mayor of Lake Worth Beach, FL, where Franne lived out the last years of her life. Among the many people Franne met during her time at Cerebrum, John Storyk became one of her best and longest lasting friends. John designed the Cerebrum’s interior, impressing musician Jimi Hendrix so much that he hired Storyk to design Electric Lady Studios. John and Franne remained friends from then on and had been planning a trip to Egypt’s Red Sea together with a group of friends later this year.

After Cerebrum, there was no looking back. Theater would be her focus. The extensive and impressive list of Franne’s professional accomplishments include some lesser-known, but no less remarkable, and several very well-known projects. In the early 70s, Franne met and partnered with set designer Eugene Lee. Together they designed, and shared the 1971 Drama Desk Award for, the highly acclaimed version of Andre Gregory’s Alice in Wonderland. Franne and Eugene collaborated on projects in New York, Rhode Island and abroad including work with Peter Brook and Jean Monod in Paris, and a production of Dude at the Broadway Theatre in New York. Their son Willie was born in 1973. In 1974 Franne designed the costumes and co-designed with Eugene the set for Candide on Broadway. The show brought them both acclaim and a Tony award for each category that year. Franne and Eugene continued to collaborate on theater projects and in 1975 ventured into television as the original designers of Saturday Night Live - think ConeHeads, Killer Bees, and Roseanne Roseannadanna. That was all Franne! During the first five years of her work on SNL, Franne earned an Emmy Award for set and costume design. While working on SNL, Franne and Eugene worked with Harold Prince on the award-winning Broadway production of Sweeney Todd where Franne’s costumes won her a third Tony award.

Franne and Eugene divorced in 1980 and Franne continued to work in theater, television and film. She loved working alongside artists such as David Mamet, Shel Silverstein, Al Pacino, John Sayles and Paul Simon, among many others. Her style has been described by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts as one that “reflects a fertile imagination, incorporating vintage items with odds and ends, resulting in highly detailed, sophisticated, witty pieces.”

In the 1990s, Franne made the cross country move to Los Angeles, CA where she worked on television projects, including costume and production design for The Roseanne Show. In 2001, another move took her to Nashville, TN where she returned to her painting roots and created an artist cooperative called The Plowhaus. The idea of the cooperative was inspired after the attacks on the World Trade Centers in New York. Franne and a group of artist friends wanted to do something important for their community and from that idea grew the cooperative. She inspired and supported many young artists, one who recently named her “Nashville’s Art Mama Extraordinaire”. Franne’s creative juices and drive to give back to her community never ceased.

That perpetual drive of Franne’s was not limited to only artistic endeavors. Those who knew her would not be surprised to see her on any golf course or dance floor she could find or hula-hooping outside of her favorite music venue, Rudy’s, in Lake Worth Beach, FL where she resided. She never stopped working and her most recent project was the 60s musical Beehive in November of 2022 at the Lake Worth Playhouse. She lived every day to the fullest and brightened every door she walked through.

Franne is survived by her brother Bill Newman (Catherine Newman), daughter, Stacy Sandler (Scott Dougald), sons Geoffrey Sandler (Karen Sandler) and Willie Lee (Kate Lee), grandchildren, Kyle Feldmann, Taylor Feldmann, Ryan Sandler (Kelsey Sandler), Jenna Sandler, Lucy Lee, Otis Lee, great-granddaughter Liliana and a list of friends and fellow artists way too long to name, all who are better for having known Franne.

In honor of Franne’s memory, hug your loved ones often, live each day to the fullest and appreciate all the beauty in the world.