Toevs, Frankie L. Bogue (1908-1995)

Newton Kansan obituary: 1995 Jul 6

Birth date: 1908 May 10

text of obituary:

Frankie L. Toevs

Frankie L. Toevs, 87, 801 E. Fourth, owner of Toevs Court, died Wednesday (July 5, 1995) at Newton Medical Center.

She was born May 10, 1908, in Newton to Frank Bogue and Hattie Rhodes Bogue. She married Irvin E. "Dutch" Toevs on Sept. 19, 1935, in El Dorado. He died Oct. 16, 1980.

She was a charter member of Trinity Heights United Methodist Church, Wesley Workers Sunday School Class of the church, Chapter AG of P. E. O., Soroptimist International, American Association of University Women, Business and Professional Women and Newton Medical Center Auxiliary, and was the first woman to serve on the Prairie View and United Methodist Youthville boards. She also served on the boards of Southwestern College in Winfield, Friendly Acres Retirement Community, Newton Library, Methodist Board of Hospital Homes and Methodist Conference Endowment Fund. She was founder of the Woman of the Year program and received the Woman of the Year Award in 1956 in the category of Community and Civil Service and in 1957 for overall Woman of the Year.

Survivors include on son, Dudley Toevs of Newton; one sister, Verda Godding of Weslaco, Texas; two granddaughters; and five great-grandchildren.

The funeral will be at 10 a. m. Saturday at Trinity Heights United Methodist Church with the Revs. Don Swender, Chester Osborn and Jeff Gannon, all of the United Methodist Church, and David Keazirian of St. Luke's Presbyterian Church, officiating. Burial will be in Greenwood Abbey in Newton.

Friends may call from 5 to 9 p. m. today and 9 a. m. to 9 p. m. Friday at Broadway Colonial Funeral Home.

Memorials may be sent to Trinity Heights United Methodist Church History Room in care of the funeral home.

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[this article included photo]

'A wonderful role model': Newton's Frankie Toevs dies at age of 87

by Bill Wilson

When friends and admirers gather Saturday to say goodbye to Frankie Toevs, they'll gather to celebrate the life of a multi-faceted woman.

Toevs, who died Wednesday at the age of 87, affected the lives of a range of people, both locally and regionally. And as her son, Dudley, puts it:

"The service isn't going to be about mourning. It's going to be a celebration of that life."

That life included a lengthy and diverse list of accomplishments that are a strong clue to the breadth of knowledge Toevs accumulated.

"She was a person of great intellectual depth," Dudley Toevs said. "She was reading and researching right up until the last. I'm not sure about the last book she was reading, but it was something like 'How to Get Everything You Want Out of Life' and that's what she was all about."

Toevs was a charter member of Trinity Heights United Methodist Church, where her services will be held Saturday. It was in the Methodist Church where a good portion of her life's work fell.

"She taught a wonderful Sunday school class," her friend Barb McCall recalled. "It grew to something about the size of a small church — around 225 people — and I think that tells you something about how good that class was. She gave us some valuable lessons about our religious education."

Toevs' work, though, was hardly confined to the church. She was an active member of several Newton area boards, and was the first woman to be named to the United Methodist Youthville board.

"And, remember, that came at a time when women weren't traditionally included on boards like that," McCall said. "She was really an active member of those organizations and she affected people constantly through her participation in those groups."

Her other board affiliations are another indication of her wide range of expertise. She served on the boards of Friendly Acres Retirement Community, Prairie View Inc. and the Newton Public Library, as well as the Southwestern College Board of Trustees in Winfield.

She also served on the Methodist Board of Hospital and Homes and the Methodist Conference Endowment Fund.

Toevs was a member of several other organizations, including Chapter AG of P. E. O., Soroptimist International, the American Association of University Women and the Newton Medical Center Auxiliary.

She was the Kansan's initial Woman of the Year in 1956 and in recent years played an integral role in perpetuating that program.

To her friends, though, Toevs is best remembered for her personality, and not just her accomplishments.

Kansan columnist Lana Myers remembers a short five-year friendship with Toevs.

"She touched my heart as few others have," Myers said. "Despite 40 years difference in our ages, I found that our conversations flowed as easily as if we had been best girlfriends in school."

Myers recalled her friend's grace in a Kansan column written shortly after Toevs suffered a heart attack.

"When Bob and I walked down the corridor of the hospital a few days ago, my first glimpse into the room where Frankie rested following a heart attack was a pale, weakened body taking labored breaths as she slept. Something dramatic was missing. This wasn't the person we had come to see.

"But, then, when she opened her eyes, that familiar aura that surrounds her returned and welcomed us into her room. Her voice was weak and she was comprised by the medical apparatuses necessary to keep her comfortable but, even so, it was easy to look beyond all of that. It was easy to feel the warmth of her smile and the gentleness of the look in her eyes."

Her friends also recall Toevs' trademark style, marked on the outside by her suits and hats, but on the inside by more.

"What she was was a wonderful role model," McCall said. "She was the first Woman of the Year and she really worked to perpetuate that program. She wanted women to step forward and get involved, but understand that she wanted that for men, too. . . .

"She worked so hard to encourage so many different kinds of people," she said. "She was so very interested in the people she knew personally. If she knew you, she knew you in depth. And if she told you something, you knew she believed it to the depths. She would pull out all the stops to make something better for a person. She was just on the cutting edge of everything."

"To me, Frankie will always represent the epitome of grace, style, intelligence, honesty, loyalty — all of those attributes one looks for in others but rarely finds combined in one individual," Myers said. "She was definitely a lady in the traditional sense of the word. She had respect for tradition but she never allowed herself to remain comfortably in the past. On the contrary, she was intent upon staying current in knowledge of the world around her. I think she could probably discuss anything with anybody of any age.

"One of the things I will always remember about Frankie was her belief in angels and their presence in our lives," she said. "Even though I will miss her very much, I can't help but be happy that, now she is with those angels she longed to meet."