Born in Manhattan, New York City, on November 22, 1953, to the late Frank Lazorick and Anna Sainato; she was raised in Pompton Plains, NJ, where she graduated from Pequannock High School in 1972.
A friend convinced her to participate in an amateur theater group in 1982 where she met her future husband, Richard. They would have been married 38 years this October 6. He took her to Cape May, to live in the Pocono's, to Bakersfield, CA, and returned to the Harrisburg, PA area. Before her marriage, she had volunteered at Chilton Hospital in Pompton Plains. While in East Stroudsburg, she volunteered at Pocono Medical Center and was Girl Scout cookie chairman for the Scranton-Pocono Council.
He introduced her to amateur radio where she passed her Morse code exam in 1991 and received a technician license with the call KA3RBI. The license arrived on opening day of baseball season, April 6, and being a baseball fan, she truly loved the irony. She liked the Yankee’s but watched many semi-pro games over the years with the Bakersfield Dodgers and the Harrisburg Senators; even attended a few games of the Wilkes-Barre-Scranton teams. She also participated in his other hobby, railroading! Not so much the models, but an actual rail maintenance car that railroads formerly used to inspect track, maintain signals, and such. They went to many locations along the east coast from Winchester, VA, to Lincoln, NH. They celebrated their 10th anniversary while in California with a private varnish trip behind Amtrak's Coast Starlight from Richmond, CA, to Seattle, WA, and behind the Empire Builder to Spokane, WA, and return to Portland, OR, where they rejoined the Coast Starlight for the return trip south.
She fought a battle against an Amoxicillin allergy early in her lifetime that cost her a career as a nurse and the ability to bear children, but she survived. The technique used by that doctor became a standard treatment for serum sickness which previously killed two out of three affected. It took years to somewhat recover from the damages done to her hands and feet. It forced her out of nursing school at Fairleigh-Dickinson University and took a long time to regain any ability to work.
Her employment before college was at Prudential Insurance in Willowbrook, NJ, as a file clerk, followed by the Lincoln Park Nursing Home until she took ill, and after recovery, she was a part-time mail clerk at Holy Spirit Hospital in Camp Hill, PA, for the last 20 years. Fran became a member of the Presbyterian church, and attended faithfully in Stoudsburg, Bakersfield and Harrisburg.
Her last battle was with a staph infection which started 5 months ago. It weakened her significantly and she was unable to get out of bed without assistance. She was in and out of the hospital and rehabilitation facilities three times and had finally returned home on September 28. The plan for moving forward with home health care, physical therapy, and occupational therapy had been made just the afternoon before her unexpected death on Sunday, October 2.
Fran is also survived her sister, Joan (Robert) Coons of The Villages, FL, her brother-in-law Robert Steinerd, Sr. (Cherie) of Southbury, CT; four nephews: Robert (Lisa) Coons, Jr., Phoenixville; Timothy (Jamie) Steinerd, Fallon, NV; Robert Steinerd, Jr. (Cindy) and Michael (Diane) Steinerd, Sr.of Danbury, CT; a niece, Allison (Dan) Kelbaugh, York, PA. Also, grand nephews and a grand neice, plus great nephews and a great niece in Naples, FL She was predeceased by her parents of York, PA, in December 2017, a sister Patricia (Robert) Steinerd of Danbury, CT, in 1991.
Burial will be made in Mountain View cemetery, Harding (Exeter Twp.), PA, on Tuesday, October 11 with graveside services about 1 PM. A viewing at Kiesinger Funeral Services, 255 McAlpine St., Dureya, from 11:30 to 12:30 will precede the services.