A month shy of her 104th birthday, Frances Caroline Robinson Bell died peacefully in her home on June 24, 2026, from causes related to … being 103.
Born in Santa Ana, CA, on July 27, 1922, Frances was the eldest daughter of Myrtle Josephine McGehee Robinson and Charles Albert Robinson. Her father left his family when she was about four. He visited occasionally, but soon dropped out of sight completely, leaving her mother alone with five children, one a baby, to support. Her upbringing, much of it through the Great Depression, was challenging as the family moved frequently and their financial situation was always precarious, but she loved her mother deeply, as well as her half siblings, James and Jeanne Hardin, and her sisters, Gail and Joyce (all of whom preceded her in death).
In view of the family’s circumstances, and as there had never been any discussion of college at home, when Frances started at Fremont High School in South Los Angeles, she felt that enrolling in the vocational program to prepare for secretarial work was the practical thing to do. Shortly before graduating in 1940, she started a job at the Bank of America in Huntington Park and was quick to note that she soon became the manager’s personal secretary. She continued what became her informal education by reading countless books and articles on literature, history, art, music, ancient civilizations, world events, human nature, philosophy, cooking, and gardening. And, almost magically, she transformed her homes into works of art, her yards into landscape masterpieces, and her kitchens into master-chef presentations (alongside the occasional tuna on toast). Each of her seven children—Caroline (David), Kathleen (aka, Anna), Anita (David), Jim (Diane), Wendy (John), Randy, and Rick—learned volumes from their mother, mostly by watching and then finding their own way, and rarely from sit-down sermons or cooking lessons.
The father of these children is Preston Bernhisel Bell (1914-2005), whom Frances met through a group of friends at the bank. Her coworkers and Preston were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Frances was immediately drawn to how they lived their lives day to day. She was also drawn to Preston’s good looks and charming ways, an attraction that led to wedding bells on June 6, 1942. She later joined this new church she was learning about during their courtship and was sealed to Preston in the Salt Lake Temple on September 23, 1946.
Frances and Preston were a remarkable pair who served their family, their church, and their community tirelessly. They designed and built three houses together, the last of which they moved into the day before Thanksgiving in 1960. Located in the hills of Fullerton, CA, the house had no carpet, no furnace, no stove, no painted walls, and no landscaping when the family moved in; but the two worked as a team for years to turn it into a home that hosted countless weddings, Sunday dinners, Christmas celebrations, book clubs, slumber parties, reunions, as well as the day-in, day-out work of getting seven kids raised and out the door to embark on their own unique journeys through life.
Frances was not overly demonstrative, but she was up before anyone else and prepared a hot breakfast for each of her children (generally in shifts) and sent them out the door with a sack lunch and a kiss on the cheek. Nor was she one to pontificate. Instead, she would (in the words of one son), “Pray for crops, then pick up a hoe and a hose and get to work.” She was indefatigable in her service to others, and her children learned early on to ask if the fresh-baked cookies and bread they smelled upon returning home from school were for them or someone she was taking dinner to. And after decades of serving in too many “official” callings to list (including Ward Nursery Leader at age 84), and serving missions in Peru, Mexico, and Ecuador with Preston, she continued her service until her car keys were quietly taken away well into her nineties.
Frances Bell will be remembered as one who loved and served her God, her husband, her children, her mother and siblings, her grandchildren (26), her great-grandchildren (a plethora), her great-great grandchildren (a burgeoning bunch), her countless neighbors and friends, and so many others who were blessed by her presence. In the words of one family member, “She always made us feel at home—in her heart as well as in her house.”
Memorial services were held July 25th at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2225 N. Euclid Ave., Fullerton, CA. The family greeted attendees prior to the service and at the luncheon that followed. The service was recorded and can be viewed below:
Frances Bell Celebration of Life Service – Video Link
In lieu of flowers, donations in Frances’s name can be made to Charity Vision (https://charityvision.org) or Latter-day Saint Humanitarian Services (https://give.churchofjesuschrist.org).
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