Frances Novak Kappelmann

Frances Novak Kappelmann, age 95 of San Antonio, Texas, passed away on October 16, 2025. She was born on October 4, 1930, in Black Hill, Texas.
Parents: Tomas and Frances Sisak Novak, who immigrated from Czechoslovakia in 1920 and loved this country. She was fluent in English and Czech. She loved music and dancing, but her knees gave out.
She grew up on the farm and worked hard with the family, animals, and field work required. She loved animals all her life, including her beloved dogs and sometimes occasional stray cats. She said she couldn't watch or go to rodeos because she hurt too much for the animals.
She worked many jobs, from that on the farm, taking a bus to El Campo to help her sister's family with their children, until her own came along, managing the White House cafe in Floresville while the owner taught, working in the "five and dime" store in Floresville and the book bindery in San Antonio, also tailoring/sewing, including wedding dresses and costumes for school plays, and, after marrying, ironing, cleaning homes, laundromat attendant, and babysitting.
Family responsibilities to her parents required her, until she married, to keep going back to her parents farm to help. She mentioned she had to return to the farm though she felt her sister in law who lived on the farm didn't help. She couldn't finish school, enjoy the majorette role she had been offered, attend nursing school she was awarded. She remained cheerful throughout.
She shared great stories from childhood. She and her sister took a donkey across fields to the the one room school. One story was of the "tramp" who popped out of a ditch, putting both girls on the ground to be run over by the donkey. She picked eggs with her grandmother, a midwife and an immigrant who passed when Frances was about ten. She remembered her grandmother reaching in an egg box and being confronted by a rattler. She spoke of the little plane that landed successfully in their field.
Her grandmother introduced her to sewing and made her a much adored coat of many colors; she would mention and sing anytime the Dolly Parton song of that name played.
A story from childhood was of the family loading up for a trip on the wagon. It was about 1946, after big rains. They got to the ridge on Highway 97W, just west of the valley where the San Antonio River crosses that road. They couldn't take the road or cross the bridge to get to Floresville. The sight made a lasting impression. She spoke of an astounding and frightening amount of water spread just below that ridge and far past the river. Road, bridge, and Floresville City Park were submerged under floodwater which had reached that far south.
After she married, they lived for a time in Corpus Christi, on the Texas gulf coast, where they had two daughters. She would speak of their many visitors. They included her two youngest sister in laws who were near high school age and cooked with her. Their youngest daughter was born after they moved to San Antonio.
She was a much admired cook of many things, from Floresville spaghetti to Pleasanton meat loaf or Wilson County exotic porcupine balls to "world's best" crispy, moist fried chicken. Those names reflected the area where she was born. Extended friends and family enjoyed and requested numerous desserts, from pecan snowballs and pies, fudge, rice crispy treats, pineapple pie, and many flavors of cookies, including peanut butter cookies and orange refrigerator cookies, to "mile high" meringue pies such as coconut cream, chocolate, and lemon.
She could quickly and gracefully whip up meals, many times for a big bunch. She frequently fed, in addition to her daughters and husband, their friends, and sometimes up to eight nieces and nephews and parents for multiple meals a day.
Frances worked hard to support her three daughters and loved sewing for them, sometimes dressing them alike. She sewed her own clothes and most of her Mother's.
She took the children to enjoy wonderful free things or inexpensive events such as seeing the animals and picnicking at the base Quadrangle.
Another field trip was to a visitation for a deceased child from the local school. She wanted her girls to better understand the fragility of life, but share questions at a time when no one else was around and not at a close family member's passing. She had them attend several of the many children's programs at nearby San Antonio churches, to aid in their religious development and understanding.
Many of her nieces and nephews and grandchildren often stayed at her home while the parents were out. She was volunteer of the year at a local hospital, volunteered at the church thrift store, and volunteered to help with a group getting food to needy families.
One proud accomplishment was graduating high School in 1976 at the same time as her son in law and youngest daughter. She was a member of the PTA, serving many offices while her girls were in school.
Mother, Mimi, Mom, Momma, Aunt, and Auntie: Because of her, we have thirteen and counting additional beautiful souls here.
She loved and enjoyed people and would call, write, or send a card to people on birthday, holidays, and sometimes just because. Her very best smiles, most happiness, was when she shared that someone had taken time to do the same for her.
You never saw her without makeup and beautiful hair and nails. She was a beautiful lady with a big heart, being a second mom to many.
She only this year said she had so many more things she wanted to do and say. Unfortunately, issues with care in the hospital starting in June took her life away from us.
She was PRECEEDED in death by husband, Edgar Joseph Kappelmann Jr., parents, Tomas and Frances Sisak Novak, husband's parents, Edgar and Mary Hooge Kappelmann, older siblings, Louis Novak and Mary, Thomas Novak and Dorothy and Lucille, and Geraldine Peter and Anton, son-in-law Clyde West (Janice), nephew, Benjamin Novak (Martha), nieces, Anna Peter (Bobby) and Marilynn Schmidt (Michael), sister in law Elizabeth and David, brother in laws, Louis Vontur (Lorraine), Franklin Coldewey and Harold Owens (Mary Alice), nephew Wally Burton (Beverly), great niece Dana Schmidt.
She is SURVIVED BY daughters Cynthia Scogin (John), Debbie Rau (Tommy), Janice West (Cliff Coffee), four adored grandchildren, Stephnie West Brooks (Dusty), Dustin West, Clayton Rau (Ashley), Spencer Rau (Madison), six great grandchildren, sisters in law Lorraine Vontur and Mary Alice Owens, and her many wonderful friends, cousins, nieces, and nephews.
We've all lost people in our lives who held space in our hearts. Her loss is a solemn reminder that we love, which is "a huge, courageous, bold act" in the face of a fleeting and fragile life in which the people we love are, simply, bound to die.
Conducting Services: Dr. David Miracle, Watershed Church