Fran Winn Line

Frances Carlton Winn was born in Clinton, South Carolina on March 13,1933 as the second child of Carlton Frank Winn and Pauline Callaway Clinkscales Winn. Working life began early for Frances. Delivering eggs in paper sacks on a bicycle while in elementary school and never cracking even one egg! Other jobs she held included selling blackberries(the fruit, not the electronic device), selling subscriptions to magazines, collecting fees on funeral plots, cleaning offices, and working in the town and college library. She never met a stranger(this trait was inherited from her father) and would know all about somebody she met soon after meeting them and could remember the details! Tasks around the home in her childhood and youth included giving chickens their worm pills, wringing the chicken necks, recycling or keeping and repurposing almost everything, shopping for the best deals at the stores, hand-cranking her mother's Oldsmobile in the morning. Several of these activities continued her entire life. For entertainment Frances would go to the cheaper 3 cents theater instead of the exhorbitant 5 cents theater with her lifelong friend Sara Elizabeth. Sometimes even crawling under a stopped train to make sure to get to the show before the newsreels began. There was entertainment at home as well. Her older brother, Charles(Clinky), had a pet spider monkey that would sometimes swing from the chandelier above the dining room table and give the room a shower or get tangled in the clothes line in the backyard. Frances's baby sister, Florence, had a BB gun and one time, completely by accident of course, riccocheted a BB off of a pie pan into Frances's posterior region. When Frances got older one summer she went to Deland, Florida to see her brother and got the worse sunburn of her life on a cloudy day under an umbrella! Fran walked to every school she attended. Upon graduation from Presbyterian College she moved to one of the Churches homes for women in the big city of Atlanta, Georgia, due to the limited employment opportunities in her small hometown. Plus she had several uncles in Atlanta. Those uncles would argue about the politics of the day. (Similar arguments occur to this day among the Line brothers.) Passenger railroad was the method of transportation back and forth to her hometown. Her job in Atlanta was at Retail Credit (now known as Equifax). Being a Presbyterian from birth she attended First Presbyterian Church on Peachtree Street and met John Paul (Jack) Line a mathematics professor at Georgia Tech from Pontiac, Michigan (a Yankee). Their first date was at Square Dance lesson {Square dancing became an obsession for them for many, many years and were on the state square dance board and attended many National Square Dance conventions.) The two married in September 1957 and moved into an apartment. Since Jack had summers off most of them were spent traveling to Michigan by car and camping on the way or staying with the family and/or maybe friends along the way. Also they would go to Pennsylvania to visit more of Jack's relatives, some that owned Pennsylvania Dutch Restaurants. The northern relatives all loved Frances and her southern accent. Frances became a homemaker after the birth of firstborn child Paul. (A neighbor child told them that Paul was not a name for a baby). Soon they moved to a house on Wawona Drive in Atlanta with backyard neighbors Jim and Sara Osborn. Jim was a fellow professor at Georgia Tech and Jack's best friend (they attended University of Michigan together). At the new address, the family attended Oglethorpe Presbyterian Church. The next few years sons Carl then Mark were added to the Line Family. The Osborns moved to Stone Mountain and soon the Lines followed to be backyard neighbors once again. The new Stone Mountain home had a huge basement that was frequently used for hosting events such as Lively Ones from the church, square dance parties, Georgia Tech folks, family gatherings, etc... After moving to Stone Mountain the family joined Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church (MDPC). Frances began teaching at the Memorial Drive Presbyterian Preschool. After many more years the baby child, John, was hatched (finally she did have a cracked egg). We had a male cat named Puff – Fran frequently commented that she was the only female in a house full of males. Frances was active at the children's elementary school by being room mother and active in PTA, receiving Lifetime PTA pin. She was in charge of the annual used book sale at Rowland Elementary for many years. She was soccer mom, swim team mom, carpool mom, snack room keeper at neighborhood pool, neighborhood association officer. One of her favorite passions was reading, she kept most all books that she ever bought. Often she would read multiple books and magazines at a time and read very fast. Libraries were some of her favorite spots. She was in the Georgia Tech Womens Book Review Group until it ended, then joined another book review group of some church friends. She was very active in Women of the Church at MDPC holding many of the offices including Moderator, and received Lifetime Presbyterian Women pin and enjoyed her circle. Also, Fran served as clerk of the session at MDPC and as church librarian. She was a past member of the Church and Synagogue Library Association(CSLA) and attended several CSLA conventions around the country. For several years Fran, Jack, Mark and John attended the church summer youth mission trips to Lansing, North Carolina with Fran serving as cook for the entire group. Zachary was the first grandchild for Fran and Jack, and was begat from the union of Paul and Leslie Paulk. Zachary was the first great grandchild on both sides of the family. Her faith, family and friends kept her strong after the death of son, Mark, on September 23, 1991. After Jack retired, Fran and Jack went on and enjoyed their first and only cruise, which was with their square dance group. The trip was to Alaska and Captain and Tennille were the headline performers. Grandchildren Georgia, Mitchell, Samuel, and Evan came into the family thanks to John Line. Jack and Fran bought a home in Sarasota for frequent lengthy visits. Everyone in the park loved Jack & Fran and her 'southern' acccent which she would drawl out even more. John married Melissa and they adopted 3 more children – Camden, Cole and Lizzie. A few years after Jack died, Carl retired and soon began 'Driving Miss Fran'. Trips to Sarasota became more frequent as well as trips to see friends/relatives and visit places such as The Ark, Billy Graham Museum, Kentucky Fried Chicken Museum along the way to Carl's running races. Fran's first great grandchild arrived when she was 85 years old. This thrilled Fran because most of her friends had had great grands for years. Thank you Georgia for Emma! In November 2018, Fran became jaundiced. After a short hospital stay the jaundice was eliminated. Pancreatic cancer was finally confirmed in March 2019 after several months and scans later where she had fun joking with the young doctors(she outlived many of her regular doctors). Surgery was not an option and she chose a short radiation treatment. She had no side-effects from the radiation We continued to go on more trips to Sarasota and other places. Fran remained mostly mobile, alert and communicative until her final week. Was bedridden for less than 7 days and never really complained about pain throughout her life. Thank you Jesus! John, Carl and Paul remained with her at her home for her last days with assistance of Melissa Line, Leslie Coons, Kevin Coons, Center of Friends Hospice and Genesis Home Care. Memories: Fran never drove the direct way to get anywhere because she didn't like the expressways. She used to get pies from the Edward's Pie Factory Outlet in plain sometimes unmarked mystery boxes. Once we got a Passion pie, must have been one of the mystery box pies. Florence's oldest child Becky was visiting with us and grandchild Zachary, a toddler at the time, was present. Aunt 'Vecky' fed Zachary a spoon of what he thought was ice cream, but was really Passion pie. Once the pie got in the mouth, screaming ensued from the taste and his mouth had to be carefully and thoroughly cleansed. (a few years later the same thing occurred again). All of the members of the Line family in Georgia had 4 letter first, middle and last names. We made up 4 letter names for the Michigan Lines. Jack was on the bowling league at Georgia Tech for decades and got a trophy every year. Fran Line was on a bowling team for just a few years and her trophy was twice the size of Jack's and had to be put on top of the trophy cabinet! Fran saw an advertisement from Dekalb Tech for a Continuing Education class in clowning and recruited Carl to go with her. Fran clowned for several years at parades and nursing home for her motherin- law, before giving up clowning because the powder used to set the clown make-up bothered her. Was somehow able to stretch a single small can of Underwood Deviled Ham and some bread into a meal for all of us when on one of our travels. Seldom stopped at restaurants. Made instant connection with people anywhere by asking where they were from and then asking about other folks that might have lived there. She got a nice photo of her mother that was taken in her twenties from somebody just by using this method of gab. It goes like this: a certain man after he married had to keep any photos of previous girlfriends in the outhouse. So we now have the outhouse photo and a cherished memory! Able to use some modern technology – smart phone, kindle, grinder(paper shredder), indoor plumbing. Nicknames Franny Anny (she would call herself this) Granny Franny/Gran Fran (her clown name) Aunt Gilliguts (Becky called her this) Little Chicken (her name for Tia Coons, honorary granddaughter) BIL (Brother in Law – Lamar Cole) SIL (Sister in Law – Judy Line, Shari Line, Liz Winn) Susie Jane (her name for Georgia) Doodle Bug Stew (her name for Lizzie) Funny expressions – If heard a noise from something falling on floor – 'Was that the set out of your ring?' - Greeting a stranger in a store – 'Do you trade here often?' - 'We are supposed to turn here Jacky' parrotted by Tia Coons In Lieu of flowers, donations can be made to: Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church Memorial Fund Friends of Adults and Children (FODAC) – https://www.fodac.org/ Dekalb Library Foundation – https://dekalblibrary.org/foundation Survivors Florence Cole(sister) & Lamar Cole, Valdosta, GA Paul Line(son), Stone Mountain, GA Zachary Line(grandson) & Katie Line, Atlanta, GA Carl Line(son), Lithonia, GA John Line(son) & Melissa Line, Dahlonega, GA Georgia(granddaughter) & Emma (great-granddaughter) Mitchell(grandson) Samuel(grandson) Camden(grandson) Evan(grandson) Cole(grandson) Lizzie(granddaughter) Sara Osborn (best and longest friend in Atlanta)