Frances S. White, 96, an advocate for the mentally ill

Frances S. White, 96, formerly of Radnor, an advocate for the mentally ill, died Friday, Feb. 10, at the Quadrangle, a retirement community in Haverford.

In 1979, Mrs. White helped found Main Line Health Group, to provide community living arrangements for people with mental disabilities. The group became affiliated with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), of which she was also a founding member.

As president of Main Line Help Group, now NAMI PA, Main Line, Mrs. White wrote grant applications to fund renovations for Torrey House in Haverford. The residence, which opened in 1986, was designed for mentally disabled people who are not well enough to live on their own but who do not need the constant supervision of an institution.

In 1989, Mrs. White cofounded Planned Lifetime Assistance Network with her husband and another couple. The network helps parents caring for mentally ill or mentally retarded adults.

Mrs. White, who had a master's degree from Columbia University, had more than a professional interest in assisting the mentally ill. A daughter, Valerie, was found to have schizophrenia when she was a college student.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the medical establishment believed poor parenting caused a child's mental illness. This caused a tremendous amount of guilt, Mrs. White told a television interviewer in 1982.

Gradually, doctors came to understand that mental illnesses such as schizophrenia are brain disorders.

"I remember arguing with a psychiatrist and saying, 'You're going to find out eventually that this is a biological problem,' " she told The Inquirer in 1986. "It's a big relief not to have the public looking on you as the cause of the problem."

Years ago, a person found to be chronically schizophrenic could expect to live and die in a mental hospital. In the 1960s, a new system of care, in which state hospitals were emptied and community health centers established, was implemented.

"The plan failed," Mrs. White told The Inquirer. Evidence of that failure could be found in the number of homeless huddled on sidewalk vents and pushing their belongings in shopping carts, she said.

Mrs. White hoped public awareness of the problem would ease the way for group homes where the mentally ill could learn how to live in a more normal setting.

After Main Line Health tried to buy a house in Havertown in the 1980s and was told to expect "a lot of trouble from the community," Mrs. White sought to educate the public that mentally ill people are rarely dangerous. She told a television interviewer that occurrences of violence, while highly publicized, were unusual.

Though she was often described as gentle and soft-spoken, she was very focused and determined to get her ideas across, her daughter Carolyn said.

A native of Schenectady, N.Y., Mrs. White graduated from Smith College in 1937 as a Phi Beta Kappa.

During World War II, she was director of American Red Cross services and recreation programs in Wales and France.

After earning a master's degree in 1946, she was a social worker at New York Hospital, Cornell Medical Center. She and her future husband, Bernard H. White, lived in the same building in Manhattan and were introduced by their French landlady.

The Whites lived in Washington, Schenectady, and Syracuse before moving to Radnor in 1955. In 1958, they were founders of the Main Line Unitarian Church.

From 1968 to 1988, Mrs. White was a guide at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She served on the board of the Radnor Memorial Library, the League of Women Voters, and the Smith College Alumni Association, where she initiated a travel program. In the 1970s, she was district coordinator for Common Cause, a good-government group.

Mrs. White played bridge and took French lessons at the Quadrangle, where she had lived since 1996, and played tennis and golf into her 90s.

Besides daughters Carolyn and Valerie, Mrs. White is survived by another daughter, Barbara Waterman; a sister; and five grandchildren. Her husband died in 2006.

A memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday, March 24, at Main Line Unitarian Church, 816 S. Valley Forge Rd., Devon.

Donations may be made to NAMI PA, Main Line, 320 Woodley Rd., Merion, Pa. 19066.