02/13/2020
Frances Jean (Ward) Caswell, 97, of Knoxville, passed away on February 13, 2020, at the Atrium Health Union Hospital in Monroe, NC.
Memorial Services will be held on Friday, May 22, 2020, at the First United Methodist Church with a luncheon to follow. The burial will be in Lincoln Cemetery.
Frances Jean Ward was born February 26, 1922, on the family farm in rural Marion County, Iowa. She was the youngest daughter of Thurman (T.E.) and Cora P. Ward.
She attended elementary school at Highland and Lincoln schools and graduated from Knoxville High School with the Class of 1939.
Frances attended the Des Moines School of Beauty and after graduation and certification, worked in several shops in Oskaloosa and Knoxville.
She opened the Charm Center and served the Knoxville community for four decades. The shop’s reputation for quality, style, and value in a comfortable and discreet environment made the business a success.
An astute businessperson, she was well respected by peers, competitors, associates, and operators.
Frances was married to Joe Doyle during WWII. In 1954, she married Lowell Ridnouer, and in 1991, she married John Caswell. To be close to her immediate family, she relocated to Monroe, NC in 2014.
Frances loved to travel and especially enjoyed a visit to Japan to visit Takashi Kume, an exchange student whom she and Lowell hosted for a year. She was also active in the Knoxville United Methodist Women and Beta Sigma Phi.
Frances was preceded in death by her parents; husbands; two brothers, Ted and Marce; three sisters, Helen, Pauline, and Lena; and an infant granddaughter, Mariah.
She is survived by and will always be remembered, loved, and missed by her son, Mike; daughter-in-law, Marilyn (whom she adored); five grandchildren, Matt, Polly, Katy, Nathan, and Nikky; twelve great-grandchildren; a brother, Ira; and numerous nephews, nieces, grandnephews, and grandnieces.