Frances Olivia Pierson

Frances Olivia Pierson – “Fizzy,” to those who knew her best –was born August 1, 1917 to Horace Brown and Jewel Lee Thompson. Their small family lived on the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama, on the grounds of Woodward Iron Company, where HB was employed. The eldest of three children, she was followed shortly by her younger brother, Horace Jr., and her sister, MaryAnna.

After relocating to several other locations, the family settled in Centreville, Alabama, where HB had a Ford Dealership. As she and her siblings grew older she learned to play the piano and attended the local Baptist Church where she sang in the church choir. She was gifted with a beautiful voice and a deep love for music. She graduated from Bibb County High School. Always passionate about expanding her mind, she spent two years studying literature and home economics at Alabama College, State College for Women in Montevallo, Alabama. During a party in her parents’ home she met and fell in love with Norman Albert Pierson. She was 19 when she married him on June 26, 1936.

Her horizons expanded again quite literally when Norman took an aeronautics position in California and the two moved west, first to San Diego and then to Los Angeles. They welcomed their first daughter, Julianna, in the early 1940s. By the mid-forties the small Pierson family relocated to Ardmore, Oklahoma, where the airfield outside of the city was the new location for Air Transport Command which later became American Airlines. Subsequently, Fizzy was the bookkeeper for Sanitary Service, the small business she and Norman established there. During this time the family grew to a total of six, including Loretta, Bonita and Marshall Alan, by the end of 1950.

Early in the 1950s Norman accepted a position with the University of Oklahoma, so the family made another move, this time to Norman, Oklahoma. Norman left OU to pursue a dream he had with Fizzy, to establish their own local business which they called Naturizer, Inc. While he managed that she continued adult extension courses at the University of Oklahoma studying a range of subjects including philosophy, psychology & Spanish. As the children grew older Fizzy made sure they had a Christian foundation. She led Boy Scout, Blue Bird and Girl Scout troops, orchestrated annual summer vacations, held cookouts and hayrides and miscellaneous smaller trips to numerous state parks as well as lakes and beaches. She excelled at travel planning and she enjoyed watching her family enjoy the excursions and experiences she had arranged. She loved taking pictures of everything, and carefully documented dates and locations of shots.

During the 1960s while her offspring were graduating from schools and moving on to their next goals, Fizzy added to her extensive book, record and photo collections. Additionally, she earned her Real Estate license and was employed for several years at Academic Realty. Grandchildren began arriving in 1967 and continued through 1986. Great-grandchildren arrived between 1993 and finished with the final three all coming during 2000. Each and every event in her families lives were photographed and recorded. She imparted to all her deep love of photography, nature, music, travel, reading, art and love itself.

Fizzy and Norman drifted apart during the later years. They never divorced but lived separately and as friends. Norman passed in 1981 but had returned to live in her home and she tenderly cared for him during the worst of his illness. Fizzy was living alone in her own home until, at the age of 93, she moved into an independent living facility in 2010. Within a few short months she transferred into first one, then the last assisted living facility. Her care-givers loved her…she was funny, loving, happy and generous. As she aged, and her condition degenerated, she remained loving and gentle. She passed away peacefully at 12:55 am on July 18, 2016, at the blessed age of 98 years, only 14 days shy of her 99th birthday. She is already missed, as she was a bright light in this world.

She is survived by her beloved sister, MaryAnna Hogelin, her four children, five grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. Extended family members still live in Alabama, Georgia, Florida and probably somewhere else as well.

Private family services will held at a later date.