ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, October 15, 1996 TAG: 9610150092
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
TYPE: NEEWS OBIT
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
Fran Carson is remembered by her friends as a community volunteer who worked tirelessly for the arts and other causes even as she fought health problems that required kidney dialysis several times a week.
Carson, 54, died Sunday after a massive heart attack, according to her husband, Gene.
"She's the most wonderful person that I've ever been around. She has helped so many people and she has been so brave and carried on under circumstances that I don't believe many people could do," said Vance Miller, a local artist whose work Carson promoted at the Palette Art Gallery in Christiansburg.
Carson was a founding member of the symphony friends' group, and also was a charter member of the Friends of the University Libraries at Virginia Tech. She served on the board of directors for Warm Hearth Village retirement community. In 1995, the Virginia Skyline Girl Scout Council honored Carson for her accomplishments in the arts.
"She encouraged people and was a great example for anyone. I just wish I had the words to adequately describe how I feel toward her and her husband, Gene. It's one of the saddest days," Miller said, his voice cracking.
Carson and Jane Bonomo had just put on an Oct. 5 show at Bonomo's University City Boulevard store honoring Miller's 84th birthday.
"She was very, very happy at Vance's birthday party," Bonomo said. The crowd of 200 people that came to that event was "really a tribute to her and to Vance and was really successful. ... She was very happy and she worked all afternoon."
Bonomo had opened her shop to Carson for art exhibits because the Palette Art Gallery she managed had been sold and the gallery had to relocate at the end of the year.
"Whenever there was a philanthropic [venture] or music or something to do with art, she and her husband were always involved," Bonomo said.
Alice Payne became friends with Carson through their volunteer work with the Blacksburg Master Chorale and the New River Valley Friends of the Roanoke Symphony.
Payne remembers Carson as "so enthusiastic and optimistic and so determined to see things through and make a success of any project she was involved with."
Payne uses the words "enthusiastic," "devoted," "loyal and faithful and fun" to describe Carson, whose Santa Claus collection - hovering near 500 items displayed in her home year-round - was featured in the New River Current in December
"She was always very hopeful," about dialysis or the possibility of a kidney transplant, Payne said.
"She was not in the least bit fatalistic. She was planning the future and expected to be in it," Payne said.
Gene Carson said his wife of 36 years would rearrange dialysis treatments if they interfered with a Warm Hearth board meeting.
The Carsons met while he was attending Tech and she studied at Radford College. After they married, she transferred to Tech. Gene Carson completed a master's degree.
"The first three years we were married, we had three daughters and three degrees. I look back now and I don't know how she did it and neither does anybody else," he said.
"If there was any one word that would describe Fran, it's 'giving.' She was the most giving person I've ever known."
The family will receive friends from 7 to 9 p.m. today at McCoy Funeral Home in Blacksburg. A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Tech's Memorial Chapel.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: File 1995. Fran Carson. color.by CNB