Frances Vashon Atkinson, last Links founder, dies at 97

ON THE EVENING of Nov. 9, 1946, Frances Vashon Atkinson was invited to a meeting of other Philadelphia African-American women who wanted to form an organization that would benefit women like them.

That was the beginning of The Links, Inc., which grew over the years into an international organization "committed to enriching, sustaining and ensuring the culture and economic survival of African-Americans and other persons of African ancestry," as its Web site states.

It was the idea of the founders that an organization was needed to respond to the needs of black women in ways that existing clubs did not. The group now has more than 10,000 members worldwide.

Frances Atkinson was proud to have been among the nine women who met that evening in Philadelphia to form such a group. She devoted much of her long life to serving and promoting its ideals.

Frances, the last surviving member of that group of founders, died Tuesday. She was 97 and lived in Cathedral Village in Philadelphia, but had lived for many years on the Main Line.

She was the widow of Dr. Nolan N. Atkinson Sr., a popular physician, who practiced family medicine in Bryn Mawr for 50 years before his death in 1999.

In 2002, she was honored by The Links as the last living founder. Her presentation read in part: "She is the lady we all should aspire to emulate. She is our link to the birth of The Links, Inc."

Frances composed The Links' song, and took part in many of the group's activities over the years. The Links has given over $1 million each to the United Negro College Fund and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, and millions to support projects in inner-city schools, for Hurricane Katrina victims, and to help build schools and infrastructure projects in African and other nations.

She was born to Frank Vashon and the former E. Prestina Story in St. Louis, Mo. She was proud of being a granddaughter of George Boyer Vashon (1824-1878), lawyer and educator and a founder of the Howard University Law School, where he was the first black professor. A high school in St. Louis is named for him.

As a young woman, Frances worked for the St. Louis Urban League. She met her husband when he was an intern at Homer G. Phillips Hospital in St. Louis. They married and moved to the Philadelphia area in 1937.

They lived in Bryn Mawr and Wynnewood before moving to Cathedral Village, a retirement community, in 1992.

Frances helped her husband in his practice, taking care of nonmedical chores like income tax returns, sending out bills, etc.

She was active with St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 63rd Street and Lancaster Avenue, where she was a trustee, and was a former member of the board of West Chester State University.

She is survived by a daughter, Carolyn Thornell; a son, Nolan N. Atkinson Jr.; five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Services: 11 a.m. tomorrow at Trinity Ambler Church, 708 Bethlehem Pike, Ambler. Friends may call at 9 a.m.

The Links service will be at 10:45 a.m.

Burial will be in Rolling Green Memorial Park, West Chester.