MIDDLETOWN, Md. — If you visit Skycroft Conference Center, you may not meet Frances Beachley, affectionately known as “Miss Frances,”  — but you might have enjoyed her signature dish — bread pudding! “That’s my favorite of all of Frances’ repertoire,” says Skycroft Director Emily Reedy. “The kids love it,” says Miss Frances with a shy smile. Her personal favorite? The brownies.

Frances Beachley shares about her life on a farm while she mixes a batch of cornbread. (Photo by Sharon Mager)

Miss Frances talks while she uses a giant mixer to make huge trays of cornbread. She slides the trays into the oven and then picks up a little notebook. She says, “I write the time I put them in the oven down here, or I could lose track.” Miss Frances is careful. She’s also very particular about people in her area when she’s baking because she doesn’t want anyone to get hurt or burned. She loves the campers and the other young guests at Skycroft. She said she’s “had a ball” with the kids over the many years she’s been there — nearly 30.

Though you wouldn’t know it by looking at her, Miss Frances celebrated her 85th birthday in January, and the Skycroft kitchen staff took her out for a special lunch to celebrate.

Miss Frances reflects on years past. “You can’t imagine what that looked like,” she points to the side of the baking area. “That’s where the serving line and hot food lines were years ago,” she says, seeing it all in her mind’s eye. “So much has changed!” And she has adapted.

To say she’s a hard worker is an understatement. Before she retired from the school system in 2001, Frances worked in a cafeteria from 6 a.m. until school let out at 3 p.m., then headed straight to Skycroft, where she worked the evening shift, sometimes as late as 10 p.m. Now she works fewer days, but she still has a lot of stamina. She’s strong. Reedy says, “Frances grew up on a farm, so she was used to hard work.”

Miss Frances laughs and says, yes, she was a “farmgirl.” She demonstrates her strength, easily holding out a heavy steel bowl for us to lift. “I lived on a farm when I was a little kid, back in the 1940’s. I was even born at home! I used to do a lot of heavy lifting.” That included caring for horses and moving saddles.

Frances, her husband, and their five girls moved to Maryland and built a house in 1963. They attended morning and evening services at a local church, and she enjoyed singing in the choir and the fellowship. She shared about the annual Strawberry festivals, singing at nursing homes and other outreach events. Family members came to her house for Sunday dinners. “Those were good times!” she says. Many of those family members now live in different areas.

Miss Frances is now thrilled to work with her great-granddaughter Cale Keadle, who helps at Skycroft in the evenings. “She does the serving, working with the salad bar, putting things out “on the line,” and cleaning up, She enjoys it, and working with the kids.”

Looking back, Miss Frances says she’s had a lot of joy through the decades and some pain, especially experiencing the death of her daughter, and then her husband, but God, she says, has got her through it all and is with her now. So she continues forward.

Reedy says, “She has served so faithfully and is so special to so many of us. I just love her.”

The feature photo shows Miss Frances with her great-granddaughter Cale Keadle. (provided by Skycroft Conference Center)