A child of the golden age of rock and roll, her teen idols were Elvis and the Everly Brothers. The daughter of first generation Italian immigrants, she formed a bridge between the old country and the new.

The year that Fran was born was not a quiet one. In Europe, Adolf Hitler was strengthening his hold on Czechoslovakia and preparing to invade Austria. At home, Orson Wells’ War of the Worlds was causing mass panic, and at the Pimlico Racecourse in Baltimore, War Admiral and Sea Biscuit were battling to see who the greatest horse in the country would be. Closer to home, the epic New England Hurricane of 1938 hurled 40 foot waves over Long Island.