Born 1945

Frances Fennessey was born in Darby Hill, Pennsylvania in January of 1945. Her father John McCreesh was Irish and her mother Frances McCreesh has some Irish and Italian in her blood. Frances has 1 brother named John and her 2 sisters, Karen and Joyce – Frances is the middle child. 

In an interview about her life, she described growing up and going to school in a city outside of Philadelphia, “I lived in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania.  I went to a small elementary school and all-girls middle and high school.”  It was the same school. Frances went to elementary school at Drexel Hill Academy and high school and middle school she went to the same all-girls school, Holy Child Sharon Hill and she went to college at Rosemont College. 

Frances never moved but she did have a summer house in New Jersey.  As a child, she went to the beach with brothers and sisters. When she was growing up she wanted to be a teacher and now she is a teacher still working and that job never changed.

According to Frances, her biggest influence is Eleanor Roosevelt. My grandmother told me that was because “she opened the doors for lots of women in our country.” 

Frances met Tom, her husband, In New York at the Saint Patrick’s Day parade and they moved to Little Compton because they both loved the beach. She and Tom had 7 children, 5 boys, and 2 girls. Also, Frances has 16 grandchildren.

In her free time, Frances likes to walk outside, go to the beach, and play with her children and grandchildren. Frances’s hobbies are reading, playing games, and walking. Frances says the best thing that has happened in her life is that all of her children and grandchildren live close. 

One thing that Frances would like to accomplish is to travel to Ireland. One of the things she is most proud of is all her family gets along well together.

Based on an interview with Frances Fennessey, April 2020.

Written by: Margaret Burnett, Grade 5 – Wilbur & McMahon School

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