Martha Francis

Martha Ann Shaw was born on November 30, 1928 on the family farm Northwest of Eureka. She was baptized in the Upper Fall River Lutheran Church at a young age. Her education was achieved at Hawthorne School, Piedmont Elementary and Eureka Elementary, graduating from the 8th Grade at Loy School and from Eureka High School in 1945. She attended College of Emporia and Wichita State University.

On June 7, 1950 Martha married her High School sweetheart, Henry Francis, and they moved to Auburn, Ala. where he was finishing his last year of college.

Since she was employed at Southwestern Bell Telephone Company as a switchboard operator in Eureka, Martha transferred to Auburn, Alabama and worked at Southern Bell. After Henry’s graduation, they moved to a ranch near Perryton, Texas where their daughter Ann was born. In 1952 they moved back to Eureka where their two sons Stephen and Stewart were born, and lived there until 2020 when they relocated to El Dorado.

Besides her family, Martha’s great love was music and as an accomplished pianist and vocalist she shared her talent with her community. Church music was an important part of her life and she played for numerous church services, directed adult choir at the Methodist Church and directed adult and children choirs and bell choirs at Christ Lutheran Church. Throughout the years, she sang for hundreds of funerals and weddings.

She also taught private piano lessons for 45 years and was active as a former member of Kansas Music Teacher’s Association, the Wichita and El Dorado Piano Teacher’s League and the local Eureka Music Club.

Martha is survived by two sons, Stephen (and wife Sue) of El Dorado and Stewart of Ponca City, Okla., eight grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild. She was preceded in death by her mother; father; two brothers; four sisters; one daughter, Ann and one grandchild.

A memorial service will be held at the Christ Lutheran Church, in Eureka, on December 30, at 10:30 a.m.

Memorials may be made to Christ Lutheran Church, PO Box 347, Eureka, KS 67045.