Kay Franke

Kay Biery Franke

Kay Biery Franke, age 73, passed on October 31, 2014. An involved member of the Kirksville community for nearly 50 years, she succumbed to illness at Northeast Regional Medical Center. Until the end, she advocated for others and reached out with advice, service and generosity.

She was born September 20, 1941 to Lacey and Marjorie Biery on the kitchen table in a farmhouse near Jolley, Iowa. She dedicated her youth to mastering the clarinet, playing basketball and engaging in church/community service. After graduating high school Salutatorian, she obtained her bachelor’s degree in Home Economics at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa while fitting in as many science and paleontology classes as she could. During these years, she traveled and worked over the summers in Window Rock, Arizona and Estes Park, Colorado. Towards the end of her college tenure she met and later married Gordon Franke, a PhD student in October 1963. She shared his love of science and followed him to Kirksville when he was appointed to teach inorganic chemistry at Northeast Missouri State College, later Truman State University. In the meantime, she taught third grade in Maryland while he fulfilled his military obligations. Once they moved to Kirksville she focused on raising three children, Curtis, Kelvin and Christine.

While busy rearing the children, she was a seamstress from home and helped run a truck garden with her husband. She later worked in Kirksville as a seamstress at LaVogue, and later as a restaurant cook at Taco Shop, Country Kitchen, Northtown Café and Days Inn. She is remembered by many for her work ethic, versatility and affability. In the 1990’s, she received state awards for her efforts shaping the Tip Top and Tigger Tigers 4H groups and made a lasting impact on the participants of those clubs. She read every day in a house filled with books. Until illness made it impractical, she bowled in several championships with her husband and had been hoping to make a comeback once she got strong enough. She became an advocate for breast cancer awareness in 2008 after losing her daughter to breast cancer as well as enduring it herself. Most of all, she relished in socializing with others and made a point of helping whomever she could with a ready smile, easy conversation, and an offer of home cooked desserts.

She is survived by her husband, Gordon Franke, sons Curtis and Kelvin Franke, and mother, Marjorie Biery. She was preceded in death by her father Lacey Biery in 1988, sister Hope in 1992, and daughter Christine in 2008.

Kay will be cremated and there will be no service.

Davis-Playle-Hudson-Rimer Funeral Home
2100 E. Shepherd Ave.
Kirksville, MO 63501 660-665-2233

The family asks that any tributes or contributions be directed to breast cancer awareness at https://donate.cancer.org/index. The family wishes to express their sincere thanks for the many people that made Kay’s final days restful, pleasant and filled with friendly conversation.