Frances Jane Dennis

Frances Jane Dennis

September 23, 1929 - March 25, 2026

Jane was born and raised in Springfield Missouri, where she received her first set of golf clubs at the tender age of 3 and played in her first tournament at age 14. Her love of animals was apparent early on and she never lacked for four-legged companions wherever she lived. She spent summers in Fort Worth Texas playing with horned toads under the chinaberry tree at her Aunt Fanny DuBois’ house. A graduate of Drury College in Springfield where she met her future husband George, Jane taught high school Phys Ed and married George in 1949. Jane quickly developed a special talent for locating and negotiating the purchase and subsequent sale of family homes, however, (too many to count) in a myriad of cities and towns in the Midwest because of her husband’s many job transfers - always making sure first and foremost that her three daughters, Jana, Anita, and Melissa, had their bedrooms furnished to a tee before turning the rest of the house into their newest family home. Another tradition Jane made sure her daughters celebrated was turning the family home, wherever they were living, into the spookiest haunted house on the block! Jane never lacked for imagination either in raising her girls, as, for example, as leader of Melissa’s Brownie Troop, she engaged a crop duster pilot to take the girls up for a quick flight around Mattoon where they were living at the time. And, even in the midst of raising her children and keeping a tidy and vibrant home life while moving from town to town, Jane cultivated her own passions for reading, golfing and playing bridge wherever she went never losing sight of what was most important to her: her family and friends.

All in all, a life well lived.

Jane was preceded in death by her husband George, daughter Anita Dennis Hatcher, grandson Peter Soper, and son-in-law, Donald "Don" Brogger. She is survived by daughters Jana Dennis Soper and Melissa Dennis Brogger, grandchildren Emily Jane Mattson (Rob), Liz Hatcher, Ben Brogger (Nicole), and great grandchildren RJ Mattson and Aubrey Jane Mattson.

Services to be held in Springfield, Missouri.