Frances Jeanne "Fran" Hanson

Frances Jeanne (Sharp) Hanson was born on June 11, 1947 in Detroit MI to Ruth Hollins Sharp and Leonard Francis Sharp. She was the 3rd of 9 children. Fran grew up in Detroit, and after graduating high school, she took a job with the FBI working in the fingerprinting department and moved to Washington DC. After a couple of years, she and her roommate decided to move to Colorado. They traveled first to Minneapolis, where they decided to stop temporarily and find work to raise funds for the rest of their move. But fate intervened, and they never left. A few years later, Fran ended up taking a job at Lerner Publishing. It was there that she would meet her future husband, Gerald L. (Jerry) Hanson. Jerry was in charge Lerner's new bindery area, and was in the process of building a home for himself and his young daughter Stacey, on Dean Lake in rural Buffalo. Fran and Jerry began dating and eventually married on May 11, 1974.

In December of 1975, Fran gave birth to daughter Heather, and left Lerner for her new career as a stay-at-home mom. In October of 1978 Fran and Jerry welcomed son Shaun and their family of 5 was complete.

Fran stayed home and raised their family, and during that time she was a dedicated and selfless volunteer, generous with both her time and resources. She taught Sunday School, Vacation Bible School and volunteered in the nursery at Zion Church, volunteered for countless school field trips and track & field days, was a Cub Scout Leader, and a Girl Scout Leader who at one point led 2 troops, while also serving as the Service Unit Manager for Buffalo & Maple Lake. She was always looking for service projects for her scouts to do. Later she also found time to volunteer with her friend Karen, helping do crafts and lead field trips for the elderly at the nursing home. Fran was dedicated blood donor for decades, and was disappointed whenever she was unable to donate.

In 1992, Fran decided to return to work. She took a job at Cheese World, cutting and packaging gourmet cheeses. She enjoyed the people she met there and stayed for 16 years, eventually retiring to be Grandma and do daycare for her 3 youngest grandchildren.

Through all their years, Fran and Jerry loved to travel, they made several family RV trips all over the US and Cananda. They vacationed with friends and sometimes traveled for business, making several trips to Europe. But Fran's favorite place to go was Pensacola, Florida, where she made many trips to visit her brother and his family and enjoy the beautiful beaches.

Jerry's retirement brought new adventures as he began looking for things to do. He and some fellow corvette owner friends founded the Route 55 Corvette Cruisers. Fran and Jerry were active members attending dinners, meetings, parades and cruises with their friends from the club until Jerry's passing in 2020. Although she missed Jerry terribly, Fran continued to participate in club events after his passing.

In recent years, Fran and her dear friend Doris joined the Red Hat Ladies club. They had fun attending luncheons and events with their new friends wearing their cute red hats! Fran, Doris, Doris's daughter Julie (and sometimes Heather too) were also Friday morning regulars at the cafe in Watertown where they loved to meet for breakfast.

Fran loved gardening, crossword puzzles, reading her books, watching hallmark movies, and the beautiful lake view she enjoyed from her living room and deck. But most of all, she loved her family. She lit up when the grand and great grandkids came over, and she loved talking to them. She enjoyed hosting holiday dinners, chatting on the phone with her sisters and brothers, and traveling back to Detroit to visit them.

Fran received her angel wings and flew home to join Jerry on Thursday January 22. She is survived by daughters Stacey Hormann (Ken), Heather Cummings (Corey) and son Shaun Hanson (Renee Molstad) 9 grandchildren, and 8 great grandchildren, as well as many other relatives and friends.

She was preceded in death by her parents Ruth Hollins Sharp and Leonard Francis Sharp, husband of 46 years, Jerry, brothers Leonard Sharp and Robert Sharp, and sister Lynnde (Terri) Boggio.

Funeral services for Frances "Fran" Hanson will be held on Friday, February 20th at 11:00 A.M. at Zion Lutheran Church in Buffalo with luncheon to follow.

A visitation will be held on Thursday, February 19th from 5-8 P.M.at The Peterson Chapel in Buffalo. Further visitation will be held on Friday morning, February 20th one hour prior to services at the church.

In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred to Shriner's Children's Hospital