Frances Bell

Birth date: Sep 26, 1936 Death date: May 14, 2025

In Loving Memory of Frances Bell September 26, 1936 – May 14, 2025 Frances Bell, 88, passed away peacefully at her home in Dallas, Texas, on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. She was born in Howe, TX on September 26, 1936 to L. Dow Bell a Read Obituary

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David Leibs

15w ago

I have always joked that I was raised by wolves until I was 16 and then they turned me over to the librarians.

By the time I was sixteen I was a voracious reader. My mom took me to the Prestion Royal branch library to meet her librarian friend Fraces Bell. Frances and I hit it off right away because I was currently reading Graham Green's "Our Man in Havana" and Frances had done her Masters thesis on Graham Green. We agreed that there were much better spy books out there in libraries' stacks. She hired me on the spot to be a Page, the most wonderful job in the world. I spent the next four years having my mind sculpted by the amazing Dewey Decimal System. This opportunity was quite a stroke of good luck.

The library is where I met my very human family that I wasn't raised by and Frances Bell was a central part of those wonderful experiences.

David Leibs

15w ago

Turned Over to the Librarians

Raised by wolves,
I knew the language of the wild,
of watching,
of waiting for prey,

At sixteen,
they left me at a library door.
Frances Bell was waiting.

We spoke of Graham Greene.
She spoke home.
She made me a Page.

Among stacks and spines,
I was transformed by the Dewey,
I learned order,
learned wonder,
sculpted I was.

Dewey numbered my thoughts.
The library,
my first human family.

Frances didn’t just hire me—
she found me.
And I stayed found.

David Leibs

15w ago

I have always joked that I was raised by wolves until I was 16 and then they turned me over to the librarians.

The library is where I met my very human family that I wasn't raised by and Frances Bell was a central part of those wonderful experiences.

David Leibs

Johanna Johnson

21w ago

Frances was a lovely person. I had a stroke. Afterwards when I went back to work she helped me get handicapped status and to get retired. I can’t say how grateful I am for everything she did.

Posted for Judy Croll

Ilise Lipton

21w ago

On one of my first days working for Frances, the library was about to close, and I was stuck on the phone with a talky customer spinning my wheels. The clock ticked 5:00 and Frances looked at me, strode over, took the handset from me and hung up the phone!!
And, there were RATS!!! Frances had a wonderful sense of humor, as evidenced in her appreciation of a good poem about rats!

Dale Mcneill

21w ago

I worked with Frances for 10 years. First as a peer (officially) and then as her supervisor (also officially). She knew much more than I did about so many things.

During that time, I made many memories, all good ones, of Frances. She was kind, nurturing, blunt, friendly, and wise.

To share just one memory of her, I remember when she retired Ann Shelton asked her about a retirement party. Frances said that she didn't want anything like that, but Ann convinced her that it was important to have acknowledgements of passages in life and that a retirement party was the way to do it. (This conversation, if you knew them both, was funny and sweet at the same time.)

Then when the party day came, it was a delight to see Frances learn, person by person, how much she had meant to so many people over the many years she had worked at Dallas Public Library. So many writers. So many librarians. So many people whose lives were better because of her. She truly did not know.

The world is poorer without her in it.

Steve Housewright

21w ago

From 1984

Steve Housewright

21w ago

Steve Housewright

21w ago

Steve Housewright

21w ago

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