Frances Votey Tracy

Frances Votey Tracy of Willow Street, PA, at the age of 101, was welcomed into the arms of Jesus on November 16, 2024. Fran was born in Washington, DC on September 10, 1923. She was the daughter of the late Jonathan Edward Woodbridge Tracy & Edwina Votey Tracy. Her two older siblings, Anna-Gray and Jonathan Edwards also predeceased her. 

Shortly after Fran was born, the family, with a Quaker background, moved to Bristol, PA. Fran attended a private Friends (Quaker) school. Her father died in 1932 of cancer when Fran was eight years of age. After Anna-Gray married around 1938, Fran and her mother moved in with Fran’s maternal grandmother in Summit, NJ, where Fran graduated from high school in 1940. 

Fran continued her education at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, VA and graduated in 1944, with degrees in chemistry and business. Upon graduation she worked at Bell Labs as a chemist until she turned 21 and joined the Navy, where she trained as an Aerographer’s Mate. Fran was stationed at Banana River Naval Air Station in Florida. 

When Fran was discharged from the Navy in May 1946, she went back to Bell Labs, then moved to New Jersey to work as a chemist at a paint company. At some point Fran also worked at Brown Instruments which became a division of Honeywell. 

Although Fran grew up in church, as an adult she was very self-sufficient and didn’t need “religion.” Friends prayed for her and encouraged her to read the Scriptures and at the age of 29 Fran came to know Jesus while reading the Bible at home alone, and her whole outlook changed. 

Fran was thinking of returning to school to get a Masters in Chemistry, but decided she wanted to work with people instead. So, in 1953 she enrolled in Philadelphia Bible Institute (now Cairn University) for their three-year program, taking a variety of Bible and doctrine courses beyond the regular curriculum and graduated in 1956. Fran had no interest in foreign missions, but several of her good friends at school were heading overseas as missionaries. Then in her last year at PBI, missionary, Neil Hawkins of Unevangelized Fields Mission (aka UFM & now Crossworld) spoke about the need for workers among an unreached group of jungle people in northern Brazil, and Fran said, “well this is it. I’ll go to Brazil.”

In the summers during Bible school, Fran traveled to Norman, Oklahoma for linguistic training with the Summer Institute of Linguistics. In doing so this helped prepare her for working in Brazil. 

Fran’s journey to the mission field wasn’t easy. Her family was not supportive; her mother’s health was not good. The deaths of five missionaries in Ecuador raised questions in many people’s minds as to why a single woman would go to the jungles of South America to reach the violent natives? “But the Lord wants me to go,” Fran said, “my prayers wouldn’t have meant anything if I didn’t obey the Lord first.” Over the course of the next 37 years, 10 in Brazil and 27 in Guyana, God continued to confirm His direction. Fran said, “right before I left for the field I got a letter from friends of my father who had died when I was a child and it said something about the Lord. I wrote back to the lady and asked her if she could tell me about the spiritual condition of my father before he died. When I got to Brazil her response was waiting for me. They knew my father well, and he was a solid Christian. It was such an encouragement.” 

In January 1957, Fran went to the northernmost part of Brazil with UFM to study the Portuguese language in the small town of Bonfim to do pioneer work among the unacculturated, jungle-dwelling tribal group now known as Yanomamis. Following the men who created small airstrips for the single-engine Cesna in the jungle, Fran was among the first outsiders to live among this group of fierce jungle people. She was part of the linguistic team which analyzed three of the unwritten Yanomami languages, creating a usable writing system. The Lord also prepared Fran by using her AG training in the Navy, so that while she lived and worked in the jungles of Brazil she was able to give the pilots a reliable weather report on the radio when they were flying in to pick them up.  

Fran felt the need for further linguistic training and took an extended furlough during which she studied at the University of Pennsylvania and received a Masters Degree. Her thesis presented the Phonology and Outline Grammar of the Aikamtheli Dialect of Shiriana, as Yanomami was then called. During that time, she also taught students from other countries what was a new type of course: English as a Second Language. 

After her return to Brazil in 1967, having spent ten years with the Yanomami with several other linguists involved with the Yanomami project, and just as they were getting ready to start full-time translation, Fran said, “the Lord moved me over to Guyana to start all over again with the Wapishana.”

Fran’s primary work was Bible translation, beginning with learning the language of the Indians and then developing a writing system for it before even starting to translate. But it was not limited to translation! She was a nurse, a teacher and a construction worker. “We did everything” she said. Looking back even in those things, Fran saw confirmation of God’s direction. She said, “the Lord prepared me in all kinds of ways. Even before I was saved I learned about canoes and spent a lot of time alone in the woods. My father, before he died, taught me that if something is put together, it must come apart, and you must be able to put it together again. That stood me in good stead.”  

During her 27 years working among Wapishana speakers, Fran created a usable writing system in the Wapishana language and worked along with a team of Wapishana speakers to translate the New Testament into Wapishana. She also did extensive work in Wapishana literacy, preparing and producing written materials to teach both children and adults to read in their own language. She prepared instruction books and trained Wapishana speakers to hold reading classes in Wapishana. In cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Fran prepared materials and trained school teachers to teach Wapishana speaking children to read in their own language before moving on to English. 

In June 1994, Fran retired to the States, leaving co-workers to continue. By 2013 the Wapishana New Testament was printed and dedicated by the Wapishana speaking community. Reading classes in Wapishana continue both in schools and among adults.  

When Fran retired, she moved to Willow Valley Lakes in Willow Street, PA. She continued to be involved with God’s work among Wapishana speakers, and other mission work around the world through her prayers and gifts. She also served for a number of years on the Board of Crossworld. 

At Willow Valley Lakes Fran helped start a weekly Ladies Bible Class, and she taught the lesson every few weeks for many years. 

Fran didn’t see anything particularly impressive in what she did in life: “God wanted me to go” she said, “and that’s what I did.” In her 80’s she spent weeks in the hospital following a repair surgery for her pacemaker that went wrong. “I’m still here,” she said. “I kept thinking of that verse in Jeremiah when I was in the ICU - ‘I know the plans I have for you…to give you a hope and a future.' And I looked up at the ceiling and wondered if the future would be to see another ceiling or whether the future would be with the Lord. I had asked the Lord earlier in the summer for a more intimate relationship with Him. Well, I got it. I’m not always going to feel His presence beside me like I did in that hospital room, but He gave us His Word and that’s where I find Him.” 

After recovering from her surgery Fran was looking forward to getting back to teaching in the Ladies Bible Class. Over 60 women came each week and they taught straight from Scripture. 

“God has been good to me,” Fran said. “I’ve walked in the valley of the shadow of death. And I was not afraid. The Shepherd was there.” 

Fran celebrated her 100th birthday September 2023 with many cards; friends from Willow Valley; her Mission Board (Crossword); her home-sending church - Calvary Baptist Church, Bristol, PA; as well as her local church, Grace Community Church of Willow Street. A particular blessing of that celebration was that Bev Dawson, who was Fran’s translation partner during the last 21 years that Fran was in Guyana, was present! 

Fran lived a full and adventurous life and she will certainly be missed. Fran was fully confident and committed to her Savior who gave her peace, patience and joy as she looked forward to spending all of eternity with Jesus. A hand written post-it in the front of Fran’s Bible reads, “God’s will is what I would want if I knew everything.” 

A Celebration of Life will be held Saturday, December 7, 2024, at 1 PM, in the Thomas Auditorium, Willow Valley Lakes, 300 Willow Lakes Dr, Willow Street, PA 17584. The officiating clergy is Pastor Mike Sigman of Grace Community Church of Willow Street. In lieu of flowers, please consider a memorial donation in Fran’s name to Crossworld, 10000 N. Oak Trafficway, Kansas City, MO 84155; or Cairn University, 200 Manor Ave, Langhorne, PA 19047; or Grace Community Church of Willow Street, 212 Peach Bottom Rd, Willow Street, PA 17584.

.