Opera Singer. She sang much of the dramatic and lyrico spinto soprano canon at the New York City Opera and elsewhere. Raised in the St. Louis suburb of Olivette where she graduated from Ladue Horton Watkins High School in 1973, she received her degree in theater from the University of Kansas in 1979, began her operatic training at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, then moved on to Italy where she studied with noted singers Renata Tebaldi and Carlo Bergonzi. Frances made her New York City Opera bow in 1986 in the joint roles of Margherita and Helen of Troy from Arrigo Boito's "Mefistofele", earning Debut Artist of the Year Honors and a Richard Tucker Foundation Award. Over the years she was heard in venues on both sides of the Atlantic including the Houston, San Diego, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati Operas, the Washington National Opera, the Welsh National Opera, and Opera de Nice; her only appearance at New York's Metropolitan Opera came in 1990 as Rosalinde in Johann Strauss II's "Die Fledermaus". Perhaps best known as Violetta from Giuseppe Verdi's "La Traviata", she had a wide repertoire that included several Verdi heroines, among them Desdemona from "Otello", Lady Macbeth, Elvira from "Ernani", "Aida", Amelia from "Un Ballo in Maschera" and the Leonores of both "Il Trovatore" and "La Forza del Destino". At various times she was Donna Elvira and Donna Anna from Mozart's "Don Giovanni" and Vincenzo Bellini's Celtic Priestess "Norma", as well as a number of Puccini's ladies including Mimi in "La Boheme" and the title leads of "Manon Lescaut", "Tosca", and "Madame Butterfly". An active recital singer, she performed the "Requiem"s of both Mozart and Verdi and was heard at the Mostly Mozart Festival and at New York's Carnegie Hall and Town Hall. She sang the "Ave Maria" at the September 11, 2001, Mass for Ground Zero at St. Paul's Cathedral and performed the Mozart "Requiem" to honor the 40th. anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination. Frances devided her final years between New York City and Milan, Italy; she died of central nervous system metastases from ovarian cancer with she had been ill since 2007 leaving a limited recorded legacy which included complete renditions of "Don Giovanni" and "Tosca".