Frances B. Hostetter

Frances B. Hostetter, a resident of Sacred Heart Home in Oregon, Ohio for the past eight years, was promoted to heaven on February 10th, 2019, to see her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, face to face. Fran passed away peacefully, with her devoted husband of 65 years, Ed, and family members at her side. Frances was born on November 4th, 1927, to Howard and Helen Bassett in Ithaca, NY. She grew up on the family farm in Interlaken, NY, which is nestled between the beautiful Finger Lakes of Cayuga and Seneca. Her dad died suddenly on May 20th, 1936, leaving behind his wife, Helen, and 5 small children: Howard; Charles; Frances; Robert; and Daniel. This hardship taught the family the life lessons of the importance of a strong work ethic and putting forth their best efforts. Fran graduated from South Seneca High School in 1946 as her class salutatorian. Fran’s close friend, Susie Lantos, was the class valedictorian, and provided Fran with formidable competition for the top spot. This outcome was possibly genetically determined as Susie had two uncles that were recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics: Eugene Wigner (1963) and Paul Dirac (1933)! After high school, Fran attended Houghton College, a Christian college located in western NY, where she was a General Science major, and where she met her husband, J. Edwin Hostetter. Ed referred to Houghton, as the “old shoe factory – a place to get your souls (sic) fixed and come out in pairs!” After graduation, Fran completed her Masters’ Degree at Albany State Teachers’ College, and then taught high school Biology, Chemistry, and Physics at Kendall Central High School in Kendall, NY. Shortly after this, Ed and Fran were married in Interlaken, NY on April 4th, 1953. They initially settled in Staten Island, NY, as Ed was serving in the U.S. Army at Fort Wadsworth, now the location of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. Later on, Ed’s work as a public school administrator, took them to New City, NY, where they were blessed with five children: Ruth Anne; Ed Jr.; Suzanne Joy; Timothy Joel; and Carol Lynne. In 1973, the family moved to Pleasant Valley, NY, where Ed and Fran resided until 2011. Family was always a priority, so one of Fran’s greatest joys was to be blessed with fourteen grandchildren, plus their spouses, and seven great-grandchildren. Throughout her life, teaching was one of her passions. She worked as a substitute teacher, while her kids were growing up, with the Clarkstown and Arlington school districts in NY, and returned to full-time teaching at Tabernacle Christian Academy in Poughkeepsie, NY when her kids were grown. She had a great impact on many young lives in school teaching, as well as many years of Sunday School teaching at Tabernacle Baptist Church (Poughkeepsie, NY), and tutoring of many individuals in numerous academic subjects. For many years, Ed and Fran, had Korean “exchange” students living with them, and Fran spent countless hours in ensuring the development of English language skills and academic success for these youngsters. These efforts continued well beyond Fran’s 80th birthday and resulted in an extended family of several Korean “grandchildren.” Fran and Ed developed an extended family through all types of interactions over the years. Of special note is their great friend and unofficially adopted son, Shung-Toon Woon who resides in Singapore, along with his wife Eileen, and daughter Samantha. In recent years, Shung and family have made annual pilgrimages to Ohio to visit Ed and Fran. Words cannot express the love and appreciation the entire family feels for Shung, Eileen, and Samantha. Fran’s primary life goals were to live a life that was pleasing to God, and to be a great wife and mother. In a typical day, for most of her life, she would get up at 4:00AM to read her Bible and pray to her Heavenly Father. (She often told her children that “lazy people don’t get up until 6:30AM.”) She was a “prayer warrior” who kept lists of prayer requests, and checked them off as God answered her prayers. She always tried to be a good example and encouragement to those around her, and brought boundless energy, enthusiasm, and infectious joy to everything she did. She’d often quote from Psalm 118:24, “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Due to her diminutive size, and being “vertically challenged,” Fran typically wore stiletto high heels, in which she gracefully pranced about for most of her adult life. In her early 80’s, her doctor indicated that wearing high heels was probably not a good idea for a woman of her age, so she remedied the doctor’s concern by buying a pair of “flats” that were exclusively reserved for appointments with that doctor! Fran was predeceased by three of her brothers, Howard (2012), Charles (2015), and Robert (2016) Bassett, and just recently, by her nephew and son of her twin-brother Charles, Charles E. “Chuck” Bassett (June 2018). She is survived by her youngest brother Daniel Bassett of Utica, NY. Fran is also survived by: her husband, Ed of Northwood, OH; her children, Ruth (Denis) Nietz of Northwood, OH; Ed (Babette) Hostetter, Jr. of Pleasant Valley, NY; Suzanne Duryee (Bret) of Colorado Springs, CO; Tim (Barbara) Hostetter of Hyde Park, NY; Carol (James) Phillips of Newburgh, NY; her grandchildren, Joel (Lori) Nietz, Dan (Andrea) Nietz, Scott (Sarah) Nietz, Danielle (Rich) Carney, Tyler Hostetter, Courtney (Bobby) Lee, Whitney Hostetter, Nicholas Hostetter, Louise Noble, Emilie Hostetter, Peter Hostetter, Benjamin Phillips, Nathaniel Phillips, Joshua Phillips; her great-grandchildren, Molly, Sadie, Gabrielle, Brady, Olivia, and Zachary Nietz; Farrah Carney. Calling hours will be at the Sacred Heart Home (now the Gardens of St. Francis), 930 S. Wynn Rd., Oregon, Ohio on Friday, February 15th, from 4:00PM to 7:00PM. An additional hour of visitation will be held at 10:00AM on Saturday, February 16th, at Hoeflinger-Shank Funeral Home, 3500 Navarre Ave, Oregon, Ohio followed by a memorial service to celebrate Fran’s life at 11:00AM for family and friends. In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Fran Hostetter may be sent to Tabernacle Christian Academy, 155 Academy St., Poughkeepsie, NY 12601, where Fran was an elementary school teacher. The family would like to express thanks and appreciation to the staff at the Sacred Heart Home – Little Sisters of the Poor (now Gardens of St. Francis-CHI) for the eight years of outstanding care that Fran received, and to the Hospice of Northwest Ohio team for their love and support during the final days of Fran’s life.