A tribute to Frankie Bacon

Decades long WLAF neighbor Frankie Bacon passed away Sunday night

By Charlotte Underwood

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF) – Once in about a thousand lifetimes you meet someone like Frankie Bacon. People throw around words like “legend” and “pillar of the community”, but words fail to encompass what Frankie was to so many of us. I’m failing miserably in writing what Frankie meant to me.

I met Frankie when I was little when my mom would take me to pay our insurance, and I remember those visits to John Brown’s office like it was yesterday. For some reason, Frankie took a shine to me, and she made me feel special, like I was somebody worth knowing. And the older I got, the more special I felt every time I saw Frankie. She had a way of making you feel like you were worth something. That’s just how Frankie was. I have a feeling that she made a lot of people feel that way.

Everyone has a story about Frankie Bacon and Frankie had a story for everyone! I have a lot of stories about her and have known her practically my whole life, but I will never forget my first interview with her as a journalist. I was interviewing her for working over 50 years at the insurance office. During that interview Frankie shared with me that when she was younger her nickname had been “Frankie Bacon and Legs!” To this day, I have never forgotten that moment, nor the twinkle in her eyes. It seemed like the older she got, the more fire and energy Frankie had. She was an inspiration to be around, and she always brightened my day.

My mom and I took Frankie potatoes each year. She loved those little “new potatoes” the “baby ones that are so tender.” She and her husband Ab both loved them and every year we would bring her those potatoes and she would tell us just how she was going to fix them that very evening. It became a tradition for us.

As Frankie shows off her small potatoes, you can see that her office had hundreds of pictures of family and friends tacked up on the walls, sixty years’ worth in fact.

I loved to “drop in” at the insurance office and say hi to Frankie sometimes, often with a donut or a flower. She would always thank me for “thinking of her”, but what she never understood is that I was the one blessed by those visits. If I was low, or just busy with life, spending just a moment with Frankie would cure me of all that. Frankie knew what was important in life; she always had her priorities straight and she always had time for family and friends.

She was always smiling and happy; I never saw her without a smile and hug. She gave the best hugs; for such a small woman, she could bear hug me and nearly squeeze my breath out – I loved it, and I don’t know what I am going to do without those hugs.

Certain people provide the glue that help hold a community together, people like Frankie. I don’t know what we are all going to do without her. Always one to care about others, Frankie even tried to make her passing easier on me, on many of us I suspect. I take her a valentine card each year and this February, as I was leaving after dropping her card off, Frankie took my hands in hers (and let me tell you something, that is special, when a 96 year old lady like Frankie takes your hands and looks you in the eye, you listen),  and Frankie told me that one of these days, I would stop by and she would not be at that insurance office and that I was to “not be sad.”  She said, she would “go on to her Glory and to be with Ab” and that is just exactly where Frankie Bacon is.

Frankie Bacon and Charlotte Underwood on Frankie’s 95th birthday in 2022.

As my mom would say, “Frankie is an institution.”  I’ve heard her referred to as a “legend” a “community cornerstone”, but most of all, Frankie was a friend to everyone that knew her.

Born October 11^th, 1927, Frankie grew up down by Ash Street. She would have been 97 this October and during her long life, witnessed many historical events.

She was 14 years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed; she watched the moon landing on TV and lived to see 17 presidents serve terms.

But if you asked Frankie about the historical events in her life, she would tell you it was when she married her husband, and they started their family. She married Ab Bacon on Aug. 31, 1946.

They met in the “big shirt factory” in downtown LaFollette when they were about 18. Ab had been raised “up Riggs Hill near Ford Town” and Frankie grew up down by Ash Street, but they didn’t really find each other until working together in the factory.

Ab and Frankie at their 75th wedding anniversary.

Both were sweet on the other, but Ab left LaFollette to seek work in Michigan at the Hudson Motor Company and Chrysler. Frankie began working at Bentley’s Dime Store. They were both 19. Ab called Frankie up and said he was coming in for a visit for the weekend and would she like to get married.

After eloping to Middlesboro and marrying, the couple went north and worked in the automotive industry in Michigan. They spent several years there, before moving back to LaFollette around 1952.

For about five years the couple owned a grocery store in South Hills. According to Ab, Frankie gave away more than she sold and was always trying to help those in need.

Ab and Frankie married August 31, 1946.

Around 1964 Frankie went to work at John Brown’s State Farm Insurance (now Tabatha Smith’s State Farm office). Frankie recalled when she went to work for John Brown, the office was as busy “as grand central station.”

So many people in the county met Frankie through her work at the insurance office. She had friendships that she made with people from the very beginning that lasted her whole life.

Her office had hundreds of pictures of family and friends tacked up on the walls, sixty years’ worth in fact. The shelves in her office were made by her husband Ab. Frankie always told me that it felt like “home” there as well and that she loved “working with the girls, who were so good to her.”

Frankie continued to work up until her recent fall. During the 2022 interview I did with her and Ab at their home, Frankie had said she would “never retire unless she had to”; that she enjoyed her job too much to retire!

Sons, Ronald, left, and Vaughn share time with Frankie on their parents 75th wedding anniversary.

“I want people to look at me after I’m gone and say ‘why, she just sold me insurance last Tuesday,’” Frankie had joked.

Well Frankie, I’ve heard that a time or two already this week.

Through all the years of hard work and love, Frankie and Ab raised two boys, Ronald, and Vaughn. The boys are 13 years apart, but “close as twins”, according to Frankie. 

There was never a visit that Frankie did not brag on her boys, their families, or her grandkids or great grandkids to me. She always told me how “blessed she was” to have so many people love her so well. Again, Frankie, it was all of us who were blessed by your resounding love. The legacy of love that Frankie left for her family, friends and this community will never die out, nor will our memory of her smiling face.

I had the privilege and the honor to write several articles about Frankie over the years and consider it one of the highlights of my life to have attended her and Ab’s 75^th anniversary party several years ago. I will never forget the legacy of love that surrounded Frankie and Ab with their family and friends, nor how special it was to witness the love they had for each other. Frankie was in her element that day and the life of the party. That is how I will always remember her.

Frankie once told me she’s “just never slowed down” and it’s what kept her going all these years. Well, I don’t think she’s slowed down yet and I’m guessing Ab still hasn’t gotten a word in edgewise; I also reckon Ab Bacon is about the happiest anyone could ever be right now and somehow that helps a little with my own broken heart.

Frankie was all about helping people. She made it a focus of her life to be a good friend to all those she knew.

Frankie visits with one of her longtime customers, Johnny Jeffery.

Frankie told me once, during an interview when I asked her one of those lame journalist questions like “what kept her so happy in life or what were some of her life goals and had she achieved them?” I forget the exact question, but I will never forget her answer.

“I’ve tried to do my best to carry the corner of somebody’s load; they don’t even have to know you’re doing it, just slip in behind them and give them a little help.”

And that’s what Frankie did so well for so many of us; she gave us a little help.

To know Frankie was to love her and when someone you love is gone, you can’t help but have a broken heart … but I would expect no less from a heartbreaker like Miss “Frankie Bacon and Legs.” (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 05/29/2024-6AM)