Ellsworth Frankson, 82, passed away on September 21, 2013 at the Center for Hospice Care, South Bend. "With a name like Ellsworth, you've got to have a nickname," and he did. To the business world and many others he was known as Frank. To his family and those at his church, he was called Worth.
Born on August 4, 1931 to Fred and Violet Frankson in Menominee, Michigan, Ellsworth Frankson was raised in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where his father was a minister.
In March of 1959 he met a beautiful, red-headed nurse named Linda Jones while conducting a dance combo in a supper club in Havana, Illinois. He proposed to her within a week and they were married six weeks later. He said, "She was beautiful, had a lovely apartment, a huge record collection, and a great career--who could ask for anything more?" That happy union lasted 54 years and resulted in two fine children: Eric Frankson of La Quinta, California and daughter Heidi Frankson of Charlotte, North Carolina.
In addition to his wife and children, he is also survived by son-in-law Michael Hackett, grandson Eric Hackett, and two brothers, the Reverend Richard Frankson of Grafton, Wisconsin and Bruce Frankson of Addison, Illinois and their families.
Musically inclined, Ellsworth played a variety of stringed instruments and had a talent for organizing various types of bands. While still in high school, his first band performed country-western music on the local radio station. He continued organizing bands while in the Navy and before and after college.
He joined the Navy in 1951 and served for four years aboard the USS Gunston Hall LSD-5, an amphibious transport ship, in the Pacific during the Korean War as a storekeeper petty officer. Upon discharge, he attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign earning a degree in communications and economics. Following college, he worked for the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency in Chicago where he held the positions of Premium and Incentive Manager, Assistant Director of International Marketing, and Account Executive.
He and his family moved to South Bend in 1969. He worked for many years in sales and marketing for the housing and RV industries in Elkhart and South Bend until his retirement.
A member of Sunnyside Presbyterian Church, over the years he served as an elder, deacon, a Certified Presbyterian lay leader, worked on numerous committees and sang in the Chancel choir. He was past president of the Sons of Norway, Knute Rockne Lodge, #5-634. He enjoyed the stage and performed roles in a number of productions by the Presbyterian Players and The South Bend Civic Theatre. He kept his mind alert attending weekly sessions of the Tuesday Talkers, a discussion group of retired men, and belonged to a veterans Navy group called The Salty Dogs with whom he never tired of swapping sea stories.
He was an outdoorsman who enjoyed vacationing at the family cabin near Crivitz, Wisconsin and a motorcycle rider much of his life, riding until his eightieth birthday. He also was an Eagle Scout and former Pack Master for the Boy Scouts of America.
Ellsworth was also a writer of several books and numerous poems. He maintained a large internet contact list and enjoyed sending e-mail correspondence concerning topics of economics and politics.
As the family genealogist, he was proud of his Norwegian and Danish heritage and compiled Scandinavian and English family histories for both he and his wife. His research spans 14 generations from 1480 A.D in Setesdal, Norway to the present day.
Born on August 4, 1931 to Fred and Violet Frankson in Menominee, Michigan, Ellsworth Frankson was raised in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where his father was a minister.
In March of 1959 he met a beautiful, red-headed nurse named Linda Jones while conducting a dance combo in a supper club in Havana, Illinois. He proposed to her within a week and they were married six weeks later. He said, "She was beautiful, had a lovely apartment, a huge record collection, and a great career--who could ask for anything more?" That happy union lasted 54 years and resulted in two fine children: Eric Frankson of La Quinta, California and daughter Heidi Frankson of Charlotte, North Carolina.
In addition to his wife and children, he is also survived by son-in-law Michael Hackett, grandson Eric Hackett, and two brothers, the Reverend Richard Frankson of Grafton, Wisconsin and Bruce Frankson of Addison, Illinois and their families.
Musically inclined, Ellsworth played a variety of stringed instruments and had a talent for organizing various types of bands. While still in high school, his first band performed country-western music on the local radio station. He continued organizing bands while in the Navy and before and after college.
He joined the Navy in 1951 and served for four years aboard the USS Gunston Hall LSD-5, an amphibious transport ship, in the Pacific during the Korean War as a storekeeper petty officer. Upon discharge, he attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign earning a degree in communications and economics. Following college, he worked for the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency in Chicago where he held the positions of Premium and Incentive Manager, Assistant Director of International Marketing, and Account Executive.
He and his family moved to South Bend in 1969. He worked for many years in sales and marketing for the housing and RV industries in Elkhart and South Bend until his retirement.
A member of Sunnyside Presbyterian Church, over the years he served as an elder, deacon, a Certified Presbyterian lay leader, worked on numerous committees and sang in the Chancel choir. He was past president of the Sons of Norway, Knute Rockne Lodge, #5-634. He enjoyed the stage and performed roles in a number of productions by the Presbyterian Players and The South Bend Civic Theatre. He kept his mind alert attending weekly sessions of the Tuesday Talkers, a discussion group of retired men, and belonged to a veterans Navy group called The Salty Dogs with whom he never tired of swapping sea stories.
He was an outdoorsman who enjoyed vacationing at the family cabin near Crivitz, Wisconsin and a motorcycle rider much of his life, riding until his eightieth birthday. He also was an Eagle Scout and former Pack Master for the Boy Scouts of America.
Ellsworth was also a writer of several books and numerous poems. He maintained a large internet contact list and enjoyed sending e-mail correspondence concerning topics of economics and politics.
As the family genealogist, he was proud of his Norwegian and Danish heritage and compiled Scandinavian and English family histories for both he and his wife. His research spans 14 generations from 1480 A.D in Setesdal, Norway to the present day.
Ellsworth Frankson, 82, passed away on September 21, 2013 at the Center for Hospice Care, South Bend. "With a name like Ellsworth, you've got to have a nickname," and he did. To the business world and many others he was known as Frank. To his family and those at his church, he was called Worth.
Born on August 4, 1931 to Fred and Violet Frankson in Menominee, Michigan, Ellsworth Frankson was raised in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where his father was a minister.
In March of 1959 he met a beautiful, red-headed nurse named Linda Jones while conducting a dance combo in a supper club in Havana, Illinois. He proposed to her within a week and they were married six weeks later. He said, "She was beautiful, had a lovely apartment, a huge record collection, and a great career--who could ask for anything more?" That happy union lasted 54 years and resulted in two fine children: Eric Frankson of La Quinta, California and daughter Heidi Frankson of Charlotte, North Carolina.
In addition to his wife and children, he is also survived by son-in-law Michael Hackett, grandson Eric Hackett, and two brothers, the Reverend Richard Frankson of Grafton, Wisconsin and Bruce Frankson of Addison, Illinois and their families.
Musically inclined, Ellsworth played a variety of stringed instruments and had a talent for organizing various types of bands. While still in high school, his first band performed country-western music on the local radio station. He continued organizing bands while in the Navy and before and after college.
He joined the Navy in 1951 and served for four years aboard the USS Gunston Hall LSD-5, an amphibious transport ship, in the Pacific during the Korean War as a storekeeper petty officer. Upon discharge, he attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign earning a degree in communications and economics. Following college, he worked for the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency in Chicago where he held the positions of Premium and Incentive Manager, Assistant Director of International Marketing, and Account Executive.
He and his family moved to South Bend in 1969. He worked for many years in sales and marketing for the housing and RV industries in Elkhart and South Bend until his retirement.
A member of Sunnyside Presbyterian Church, over the years he served as an elder, deacon, a Certified Presbyterian lay leader, worked on numerous committees and sang in the Chancel choir. He was past president of the Sons of Norway, Knute Rockne Lodge, #5-634. He enjoyed the stage and performed roles in a number of productions by the Presbyterian Players and The South Bend Civic Theatre. He kept his mind alert attending weekly sessions of the Tuesday Talkers, a discussion group of retired men, and belonged to a veterans Navy group called The Salty Dogs with whom he never tired of swapping sea stories.
He was an outdoorsman who enjoyed vacationing at the family cabin near Crivitz, Wisconsin and a motorcycle rider much of his life, riding until his eightieth birthday. He also was an Eagle Scout and former Pack Master for the Boy Scouts of America.
Ellsworth was also a writer of several books and numerous poems. He maintained a large internet contact list and enjoyed sending e-mail correspondence concerning topics of economics and politics.
As the family genealogist, he was proud of his Norwegian and Danish heritage and compiled Scandinavian and English family histories for both he and his wife. His research spans 14 generations from 1480 A.D in Setesdal, Norway to the present day.
Born on August 4, 1931 to Fred and Violet Frankson in Menominee, Michigan, Ellsworth Frankson was raised in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where his father was a minister.
In March of 1959 he met a beautiful, red-headed nurse named Linda Jones while conducting a dance combo in a supper club in Havana, Illinois. He proposed to her within a week and they were married six weeks later. He said, "She was beautiful, had a lovely apartment, a huge record collection, and a great career--who could ask for anything more?" That happy union lasted 54 years and resulted in two fine children: Eric Frankson of La Quinta, California and daughter Heidi Frankson of Charlotte, North Carolina.
In addition to his wife and children, he is also survived by son-in-law Michael Hackett, grandson Eric Hackett, and two brothers, the Reverend Richard Frankson of Grafton, Wisconsin and Bruce Frankson of Addison, Illinois and their families.
Musically inclined, Ellsworth played a variety of stringed instruments and had a talent for organizing various types of bands. While still in high school, his first band performed country-western music on the local radio station. He continued organizing bands while in the Navy and before and after college.
He joined the Navy in 1951 and served for four years aboard the USS Gunston Hall LSD-5, an amphibious transport ship, in the Pacific during the Korean War as a storekeeper petty officer. Upon discharge, he attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign earning a degree in communications and economics. Following college, he worked for the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency in Chicago where he held the positions of Premium and Incentive Manager, Assistant Director of International Marketing, and Account Executive.
He and his family moved to South Bend in 1969. He worked for many years in sales and marketing for the housing and RV industries in Elkhart and South Bend until his retirement.
A member of Sunnyside Presbyterian Church, over the years he served as an elder, deacon, a Certified Presbyterian lay leader, worked on numerous committees and sang in the Chancel choir. He was past president of the Sons of Norway, Knute Rockne Lodge, #5-634. He enjoyed the stage and performed roles in a number of productions by the Presbyterian Players and The South Bend Civic Theatre. He kept his mind alert attending weekly sessions of the Tuesday Talkers, a discussion group of retired men, and belonged to a veterans Navy group called The Salty Dogs with whom he never tired of swapping sea stories.
He was an outdoorsman who enjoyed vacationing at the family cabin near Crivitz, Wisconsin and a motorcycle rider much of his life, riding until his eightieth birthday. He also was an Eagle Scout and former Pack Master for the Boy Scouts of America.
Ellsworth was also a writer of several books and numerous poems. He maintained a large internet contact list and enjoyed sending e-mail correspondence concerning topics of economics and politics.
As the family genealogist, he was proud of his Norwegian and Danish heritage and compiled Scandinavian and English family histories for both he and his wife. His research spans 14 generations from 1480 A.D in Setesdal, Norway to the present day.
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