Mrs. Elise Bolling Turner Franklin

Mrs. Elise Bolling Turner Franklin, widow of the late Kenneth Cabell Clay Franklin, formerly of 1906 Lafayette Avenue, Greensboro, North Carolina, and more currently a resident of Well Spring Retirement Home, passed away August 11, 2011.

A service of remembrance will be held at 11:00 AM Monday, August 15, 2011 in Holy Trinity Episcopal Church and the family will receive friends in the Haywood Duke Room of the church.

Mrs. Franklin was born January 31, 1916 in Richmond, Virginia, and attended Longwood College and James Madison University. She served on the Foundation Board of Directors at Longwood College and was a former member of the Alumnae Board of Directors for that institution. She held the offices of president, secretary and treasurer of the Alumnae Chapter of Longwood in Greensboro. While a student at Longwood, Mrs. Franklin affiliated with Zeta Tau Alpha sorority.

Mrs. Franklin’s varied business career took her from employment at Southern Biscuit Company in Richmond, to serving as an assistant with the Rockefeller Restoration Foundation in Williamsburg, Va., to the FHA in Richmond, and then with the FBI. She and her husband moved to Greensboro in 1949, and, after raising her sons, returned briefly to the workforce as a legal secretary for the Greensboro law firm of York, Boyd and Flynn in the 1960’s. After her retirement she became involved in numerous hereditary organizations.

Mrs. Franklin was a former chairman of Hostesses for the Red Cross Blood Mobile and chaired the Christmas Seal Drive for the City of Greensboro. She was a chairman for the Guilford County Bicentennial Celebration and coordinated the visit of the “Freedom Train” at the Guilford Battleground in connection with the Bicentennial in 1976.

Memberships held by Mrs. Franklin included the Colonial Dames, Colonial Daughters of the 17th Century, Guilford Battle Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution, where she held many offices including Regent, National Chairman, District Director for District V of North Carolina DAR, and Honorary Lifetime Regent. Under Mrs. Franklin’s leadership the Guilford Battle Chapter DAR erected the memorial gates at the Guilford Battleground National Park.

Other organizations of which Mrs. Franklin was a member were the Order of the Crown of Charlemagne in the USA, the Society of Descendants of the Knights of the Royal Order of the Garter, Daughters of the American Colonists, Guilford Chapter United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Huguenot Society of the Founders of Manakintowne in Virginia, Daughters of the Cincinnati, Magna Charta Dames, the Plantagenet Society, the Society of Americans of Royal Descent, the Jamestowne Society, and as a descendent of the Stokes family in Virginia she was accorded charter and life membership in the Stokes County, NC, Historical Society. In 1979 she founded and organized the Meriwether Society. In Greensboro she was a member of The Assembly, The Greensboro Cotillion, The Wednesday Literary Club, Greensboro Country Club, a charter member of the Blandwood Guild, Greensboro Preservation Society, the English Speaking Union and Holy Trinity Episcopal Church where she had served as a member of the Episcopal Churchwomen’s Board.

Mrs. Franklin is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the South and Southwest, Who’s Who International, the Hereditary Register, and Personalities of the South.

She was predeceased by her mother, Edna Cleveland Harding Turner, father, Luther Martin Turner and brother Luther Harding Turner. Survivors include son Judson Bolling Franklin and wife Carol of Greensboro, son Alexander Lanson Franklin II of Charleston, West Virginia; granddaughter Susannah F. Winstead and husband Mark of Norfolk, Virginia, grandson Cabell Chilton Nelson Franklin and granddaughter Merriweather Ruffner Franklin of Charleston, West Virginia, sister-in-law Jean Browne Turner of Mechanicsville, Virginia, and several nieces and nephews.

Burial will be private in Green Hill Cemetery, Greensboro, North Carolina.

Memorials may be made to Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 609 N. Greene St., Greensboro, NC 27401 or to a charity of one’s choosing.

On line condolences may be made through www.haneslineberryfuneralhomes.com.