Frances M. (Salter) Thompson, 92, of West Hartford, CT, died Wednesday, Jan. 27, in Farmington, CT.
Born in the Bronx and raised in Staten Island, NY, she graduated from Staten Island’s New Dorp High School in 1945; Green Mountain Junior College, in Poultney, VT, in 1947; and Columbia University, Presbyterian Hospital School of Nursing, in New York, NY, in 1950. She was married for 52 years to Dr. Hartwell G. Thompson, retired chair of the University of Connecticut Medical School’s Department of Neurology, who died in 2008.
Longtime summer residents of Madison, CT, she and her husband moved their family several times, as he held academic-medical appointments in New York City’s Washington Heights; Madison, WI; Morgantown, WV; Devon/Philadelphia, PA; Charleston, WV; and West Hartford, CT.
During that time, she worked extensively as an active volunteer and part-time nurse. She held offices for PTAs of her children’s schools; volunteered at hospitals and Red Cross blood drives; led Cub Scout, Brownie, and Girl Scout troops; volunteered at art museums; and served as an officer of the League of Women Voters. Most recently, she served as a library volunteer at Chatfield, the independent-living community in which she resided.
She concluded her professional nursing career at Brookview, now West Hartford Health & Rehabilitation Center.
Throughout her life, she especially enjoyed and supported the arts, including theater, opera, ballet, and symphony orchestras in areas in which she lived — and always in New York City.
She was a longtime member of First Church of Christ Congregational in West Hartford.
Family and friends recall her as an exceptionally independent, strong, steady, wise, compassionate, and caring woman.
She was survived by her brother, Ernest H. Salter and his wife, Ellen, of Lady Lake, FL. He died February 12, after a long illness.
She leaves four children: Sarah S. Thompson of Edinboro, PA; Elisabeth T. Griffin of Belmont, MA; Mary G. Thompson and husband Scott Greene of Madison, WI; and Benjamin H. Thompson of Clinton, CT.
She also leaves eight grandchildren: Johanna (Griffin) Loughran of North Berwick, ME; Andrew Griffin of Oslo, Norway; James Griffin of Boston, MA; Benjamin Kirk of Silver Spring, MD; Anna Kirk of Denali Park, AK; Ingrid Greene of Madison, WI; Gretchen Greene of Bethesda, MD; and Sylvia Greene of Madison, WI — and great-granddaughter Holly Frances Loughran of North Berwick, ME.
Memorial contributions may be made to Foodshare, now united with the Connecticut Food Bank in leading an informed, coordinated response to hunger in Hartford and Tolland counties.