Mary Frances Forbes

It is with great sorrow that we announce that Mary Frances Forbes, 18, passed away unexpectedly on Monday, October 13, 2025.
A lifelong Memphian, Mary Frances was a graduate of St. George's Independent School in Collierville, Tenn., and attended Rhodes College in Memphis at the time of her passing. At Rhodes, Mary Frances was a Clarence Day Scholar, a testament to her leadership and penchant for excellence, as well as her love of and belief in a bright future for the city of Memphis.
Core to Mary Frances's passions was a heart for social justice by way of service and civic engagement. She was a founding member of the Memphis chapter of Voters of Tomorrow, an organization whose mission is to engage young Americans in politics and government, through which she helped to empassion many young people to register to vote and become more informed citizens of democracy. She passionately devoted time and resources to serve in many other ways, through organizations such as Keep Memphis Beautiful, which hosts community litter cleanup events, and Sister Supply, whose mission is to fight period poverty and destigmatize menstruation through supply drives and education. During her senior year, she even organized a lunch cohort for students and teachers to join together and discuss ways St. George's could be better stewards of the environment. While her involvements are too extensive to list in full, the common factor is that each represents Mary Frances's selflessness. Every action was about something bigger: her belief that no one deserves to be forgotten, underserved, or rendered voiceless.
Mary Frances approached the beauty and the tragedy of the world through a lens of action, and she viewed the various forms of art for which she was passionate as a vehicle for the critical thinking that would lead to concrete contributions. As she wrote in a college admission essay, "[art] calls me to action." Music, literature, and film specifically inspired this action beyond simply being a medium of entertainment. She approached every text with an open mind and as a call to arms-her political involvement fueled by an insistence that we not regress to the same problems to which her beloved riot grrrl punk rock spoke, her internship work inspired by issues emphasized by films she loved.
It was perhaps through music that Mary Frances's open-minded approach to life was most evident. As both a fan and as a musician herself, she explored and experienced the peaks and valleys of emotion through song, independent of genre, age, or popularity. Both playing music and sharing her favorite songs with others were among her most sincere and dynamic vehicles of expression, and her appreciation for exploring the niches of the musical world was a clear reflection of her constant craving to explore the world, as a whole, more fully.
In her classes as in life, Mary Frances was always ready for a discussion, but the discussion was never about her; it was about earnestly deciphering the world around her to unlock greater discoveries of authenticity and purpose. On one memorable occasion, Mary Frances was diametrically opposed to the political ideas espoused by a peer, yet when he was impolitely dismissed by other students she defended him, explaining his argument to everyone better than he had, gently teaching him and forging a closer community. By intent listening and an open mind, whether within conversation or to the messaging of the art that buoyed her inherent belief that our world has the capacity to be the best version of itself, Mary Frances constantly challenged her own worldview. It was as if you could see her imagination growing as it revealed unseen layers of texture and color to human behavior and history. She embraced this complexity and its lesson of humility; it meant more enjoyment, deeper curiosity, and an expanded sense of wonder, all of which served to reveal more possibilities when it came to her quest to grasp profound truths of life. Socrates and Mary Frances: individuals blazing through the haze of sophistry, seeking truth at all costs.
Perhaps most powerful is that Mary Frances believed in all of us, even at our worst. Serving on the St. George's Honor Council, a cohort of students who advise peers toward wise choices, she stood athwart social pressure, pointing us toward Lincoln's "better angels of our nature." As a senior, she was named Prefect of Honor, and she was awarded the Ferguson Award for Distinguished Service. More important than any titles or honors, though, Mary Frances was a titan of standing up for what is right. She was an advocate for being one's genuine self and that advocacy came through in everything she did. She was open and frank, willing to speak truth to power, and she had a way of enamoring you with her passions-of inspiring hope and passion within you that you didn't even know was there. In an essay from her senior year, she wrote, "If we are able to acknowledge the darkest, rawest parts of what humanity is and own up to our continued involvement in the [evil acts of this world], then we can create change for our institutions and society." The whole of her words and actions underscore her "both/and" perspective. In short, while she was inspired by the intricacy of the world around her, she provided that same inspiration for the rest of us. Through Mary Frances, teachers learned to be better teachers, peers learned how to be better peers. Because of Mary Frances, we all learned to be better humans.
Mary Frances also loved her family fiercely. She revered the trips she took with her father, James Carlo Forbes, particularly when they involved exploring the musical terrain that he so inspired her to love. She admired the passion with which her mother, Tracy Moore Forbes, modeled the productive balance of work and life. And she perhaps loved being her brother West's sibling more than anything in the world. Mary Frances saw West as equal parts best friend and confidant, and she watched over him adamantly. Mary Frances will also be greatly missed by her friend and first love, Wesley Walkup. As we have mourned her loss, Wesley has remained close to us and has become a part of our family unit as we grieve together. Mary Frances was preceded in death in 2024 by her dear grandfather, Stephen Tazwell Moore. Mary Frances is also survived by her loving grandparents Carolyn Moore, Laura Forbes, Gene Geiger, and Paul Forbes. She is also survived by her Aunt and Uncle, Catherine Moore and John Taylor Moore, and their children, Jack, Mia Beth, Shep, Roman, Jude, and Cate. Finally, she also leaves behind her aunt and uncle who were her godparents, Leon and Cindy Cefalu, and their daughter Kelli Cefalu.
In Mary Frances's 5th grade capstone speech, aptly focused on the importance of originality, Mary Frances showed an early display of her maximizing freedom to express excellence as she blended singing in character with her prose. Amidst references to John Stuart Mill, The Sound of Music, Disney's Pinocchio, Harry Potter, Wicked, and Roald Dahl, she charged us to, "Remember what the book of Psalms says, that you are 'fearfully and wonderfully made '" From an early age she wrestled with the meaning of those words as she pressed her immense, unique talents to the point of those divinely-knitted seams bursting, striving to serve goodness and justice. Her sincere endeavor is an unfinished model to us left grieving and wrestling with that same psalm's words: "[Y]our works are wonderful, I know that full well... Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be" (Psalms 139:14,16).
But we do not grieve alone: "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all," "the Father of compassion who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble" (Romans 8:32a; 2 Corinthians 1:3-4a).
While it is beyond the capacity of those of us she left behind to understand how or why it is possible to have lost such a guiding star so young, the task left to us is to march forward as inspired by the example that Mary Frances showed us most clearly: to be a more compassionate listener, to be unafraid of the daunting nature of important questions, to appreciate each others' inherent originality, and to stand up for what is right and good in our complex world. In A celebration of life is being planned with details to come shortly.
Memorial donations may be made in Mary Frances's name toVoters of Tomorrow (votersoftomorrow.org) Christ Community Health Services (https://www.christcommunityhealth.org/get-involved/donate), or Voters of Tomorrow (https://votersoftomorrow.org/donate).