Frances Oliver Loud

Frances Oliver Loud died peacefully after a three-week illness on Monday, March 8, in Seattle, in the company of family.

Born Goldie Frances Dworken on Sept. 16, 1913, in Cleveland, she was the only child of Morris Dworken and Dena Pearlstein, who came to America to escape the dangers and anti-Semitism of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires.

Artistically gifted, she focused her talents in drama. She earned a BS in education in teaching French through theater in 1935 at Ohio State University. At OSU, Frances met the love of her life, Oliver Schule Loud, through the theater, and their marriage lasted nearly 65 years until his death in 1999.

Believing the people could and must make this a better world, she was a political activist all her adult life, starting with her opposition to the Japanese occupation of China after 1931. She influenced Oliver into activism, and they were partners in many causes, including the defense of the Spanish Republic and the antifascist struggle through 1945, trade unionism, the defense of civil liberties during the McCarthy period, and the movements for civil rights, nuclear disarmament, an end to the Vietnam war, support for a just Israeli-Palestinian peace and a sustainable environment.

Under her professional name Frances Oliver, she pursued a notable career in theater in New York and then in Yellow Springs, where her husband came to teach at Antioch College in the 1940s. Frances was a mainstay of the professional Shakespeare Under the Stars here, which over consecutive summers in the 1950s became the first American company to perform all of Shakespeare’s plays. She played many varied roles in Antioch’s drama program, in the village theater scene and in other professional summer companies.

Frances taught French at Bryan High School and Urbana College and was active in Community Chorus. After Oliver retired in 1976 (though he kept teaching at Antioch University sites until 1994), they spent more time visiting with their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in Seattle and France.

In 1997, Frances and Oliver left Yellow Springs for Seattle to be closer to family. It was difficult for them to leave the village, which they viewed as rich in community, culture, education and progressive politics, and considered a wonderful place to have raised a family and to have called home for 54 years.

Frances now lives on through the lives she started and through all those she touched with her creative gifts and her devotion to justice and peace.

Frances is survived by her daughter, Julia Frances Albertin of Grenoble, France, Julie’s husband Camille, grandchildren, Nathalie, Jerome and Corinne, and seven great-grandchildren; her son, David Oliver Loud of Seattle, his wife, Thu-Van Nguyen, and grandsons, Andre and Aaron Walker-Loud and Avi and Ariel Loud.

A funeral service and celebration of Frances’s life will be held on Monday, March 22, in Seattle. Her family will be happy to share any messages received by March 21, at doloud8058@msn.com or by fax, 206-568-1930. Remembrances may be made to Jewish Currents, 22 East 17th Street #601, New York, NY 10003, or Rosenberg Fund for Children, 116 Pleasant Street, #3312, Easthampton, MA 01027.

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Alice Tyson
Alice L. Tyson of Yellow Springs died on Thursday morning, March 11, at Greene Oaks Health Center. She was 68.

Born on Sept. 15, 1935, in DeKalb, Ill., she was the daughter of John E. and Lillian Youngberg Johnson.

She was a member of the Assemblies of God Christian Center in Yellow Springs.

She was preceded in death by her parents and a stepdaughter, Joye D. Joseph.

She is survived by her husband, the Rev. J. Ray Tyson, whom she married June 9, 1990; two stepdaughters and their husbands, Raynee and David Shepherd of New Carlisle and Dawn Tyson Kodama and Boyd Kodama of Media, Penn.; nine stepgrandchildren, Jessica Joseph, Melanie Joseph, Michael Joseph, Elizabeth Shepherd, Christy Shepherd, Benjamin Shepherd, Ethan Shepherd, Zane Kodama and Levi Dodama; two sisters, Evelyn Nelson and June Yennyson, both of Wheaton, Ill.; nieces and nephews, Debi and Scott Foshee and Dom and Ann Gilla.

Services were held on Tuesday, March 16, at Assemblies of God Christian Center, with burial following in Glen Forest Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to the Assemblies of God Christian Center, 325 East Dayton-Yellow Springs Road.

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Dennis Kraus memorial
A memorial service for Dennis Joseph Kraus will be held on Sunday, March 28, at 1 p.m., at the Glen Helen Building. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Kraus of Fairborn, formerly of Yellow Springs, died on Tuesday, Jan. 27, at Hospice of Dayton, after a year’s illness. He was 41.