Frances Loretta Piper

Frances Loretta Scheerer Piper of Weatherford passed away April 6, 2009, at the age of 88. Funeral services will be at 10:00 AM, Thursday in St. John's Chapel at Camp Crucis Conference and Retreat Center, Episcopal Church camp in Granbury, Texas. Rev. Canon Charles Hough of the Ft. Worth Episcopal Diocese will officiate with Margie Piper serving as Chalice Barrier. Interment will follow at Stephenville West End Cemetery. Visitation will be 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM, Wednesday at Stephenville Funeral Home. Frances was born in El Paso, Texas to the late Millard Frank and Rufina Ruby Berru Scheerer. She was married to L.D. Piper for 33 years. She graduated from St. Patrick's Catholic School. During WWII she worked in the shipyards at Richmond, California as a welder where she helped build the famed liberty ships that carried troops and supplies. After the war she returned to Texas. The family lived in several Texas towns and even spent time in Anchorage, Alaska. They settled on a ranch near Morgan Mill but then moved to Odessa. This is where she attended nursing school and became a Licensed Vocational Nurse in 1961. Frances began her nursing career at Odessa Memorial Hospital in the pediatrics ward and also as a recovery room nurse. Her nursing skills were practiced at All Saint's Episcopal Hospital in Ft. Worth, Hood County Hospital in Granbury, and she also took care of Tarleton students at the university infirmary in the late 1960's. Upon retiring from nursing, she cared for children in her home in Stephenville. She provided a loving, nurturing environment for teachers' children. They had to be teachers' children so that Frances was free to practice her beloved nursing skills at the Camp Crucis in Granbury during the summer months. She was not only grandmother to her son and daughter's children, but she was ‘Granny Frances' to countless other children that she loved as if they were her own. By the way Frances lived her life, her family and friends saw how to be a sharing, loving, and forgiving person. She was all of these and she will be dearly missed. Frances has earned a special place in Heaven because of the caring life she lived. She is survived by son and wife, Joe Frank and Margie Piper of Garner; daughter and husband, Lelaneen ‘Tinker' and JW Williams of Cedar Hill; brother and wife, Bob and Betty Partain of Corona, Arizona; sister, Joyce Scheerer Piper of Las Vegas, Nevada; sister and husband, Judy and George Heavner of El Paso, Texas; brother-in-law, Charles Pairis Jr. of Anthony, New Mexico; grandchildren, Tammy Gilbreath, Danny Joe Piper, Cullen Don Jones, and Holly Loretta Jones; Step-grandchildren, Raymond Latham, Julie Masterson, and Marcie Poston; great-grandchildren, Mac Gilbreath, and Danielle Piper; step-great-grandchildren, Adrian and Dillon Masterson, Landry Poston; and many nieces and nephews and all those children she cared for in her home and at Camp Crucis. She was preceded in death by one brother, four sister, and three nephews. Memorials may be made to the Camp Crucis Fund 2875 Camp Crucis Ct. Granbury, Texas 76048.