Frances S. Thompson, known as “Fran”, passed away peacefully at home on Wednesday, May 31, 2023 with her loving family by her side.

Fran was born in her grandmother’s home in Philadelphia, PA to parents, Helen Saddic Saffo and Thomas Gaeton Saffo. She was raised in Claymont, DE and graduated from the University of Delaware in 1952 with a degree in economics. She married Robert H. Thompson in 1954 and went on to raise six children. Fran was deeply civic-minded and volunteered from an early age in Delaware at an orphanage and the pre-school at UD. She remained a highly active community member upon moving to Fairfield in 1965, volunteering at Timothy Dwight Elementary School in the library, in classrooms, with special needs students, at the Dogwood Bazaar, at the Senior Center, and as a Girl Scout and Cadette Scout leader. She served as treasurer of the United Nations Association, active fund-raising member of the Fairfield Women’s Club, recording secretary and fundraiser for Easter Seals Rehabilitation, and co-partner for Easter Seals Supplement.

Fran’s greatest contribution to her community was through her civic work at the Fairfield YMCA. It was essentially her second home for fifty years. She was a swim team coordinator, a lifeguard, a swim instructor, a board member, a recording secretary, a major fundraiser, a lifelong supporting member, and active with the Capital Campaign promoting and informing decisions around YMCA renovations and improvements for decades.

Fran is likely best known around Fairfield for teaching life-saving swimming lessons for many years at her home. She taught hundreds of children and was often sought in later years to teach their children. Fran’s life-saving lessons echo through generations.

As hard as she worked, Fran delighted in playtime too. She could be spotted around town in her hot red car with the SWIMIN license plate and her American flags waving from her windows. She adored playing cards and Chinese checkers with her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Fran forever appreciated art and music and could often be found listening to country and gospel while reading. Although Fran was an extensive traveler abroad and domestically, the beach was her favorite escape including Fairfield beaches, Outer Banks, NC and an annual trip to Myrtle Beach, SC. Her play included attention to her health, and she held a strict ritual of swimming and working out every morning at the Fairfield YMCA until the age of 91.

Fran is survived by her devoted children, Donna and her husband, Dr. Michael Tierney, Paula Ramos and her husband, Gregory Cowling, Pamela Taylor and her husband, Robert, and Bryan Thompson and his wife, Virginia, and a dear friend of the family, Colleen Fries. Her grandchildren who follow were so important to her, and she henceforth became fondly known to all in the family as Geena. Geena was involved in all aspects of their lives: Sean Tierney and his wife, Lauren, Lauren Tierney Gau and her husband, Andrew, Austin Ramos and his wife, Mary Catherine, Jaqueline Ramos, and Megan, Riley and Quinn Thompson; step-grandchildren, Rhys and Aidan Cowling; and great-grandchildren, Reid, Gavin, and Brooks Tierney, and Harlan and Trey Gau. She was predeceased by her brother, Thomas Theodore Saffo, her former husband, Robert H. Thompson, her son, Robert (Bobby) Thompson, her daughter, Daria Thompson, her son-in-law, Glenn Ramos, and her devoted, loving companion, Neil A. Wright.

Friends are invited to greet her family to share wonderful stories about her on Thursday, June 29, 2023 from 4-6 p.m. at the Shaughnessey Banks Funeral Home, 50 Reef Road in Fairfield Center. A Mass of Christian Burial will take place on Friday, June 30, 2023 at 10:30 a.m. at St. Pius X Church with interment to follow in Oak Lawn Cemetery.

Donations may be made in her memory to: the Fairfield YMCA (for a bench in Fran's honor), Tunnel to Towers Foundation or to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.