Spotlight
Fran Kinne: The life of a local legend By Ronna Faaborg Gannett
D
r. Frances Bartlett Kinne was two weeks shy of her 103rd birthday when she died on May 10. She was a glass ceiling breaker, a generous benefactor, a small-town Story City girl who never forgot her roots and never stopped loving her hometown, no matter where she was in the world. Born on May 23, 1917, six days before the birth of futurepresident John F. Kennedy, Kinne was raised in Story City and retained close ties with the town for more than a century. As recently as September, she donated $40,000 for the repair of the town’s historic Swinging Bridge, a 1936 Works Progress Administration project that sustained damage last year from flood-driven ice. Fran grew up in Story City, the daughter of Charles and Bertha Bartlett. Her father published the Story City Herald, and her mother was the first full-time librarian for the community, which made Bertha Bartlett the namesake of its library. Bertha, too, lived to see her 100th birthday. With a love for music and literature, she became a trailblazer in education: she was the first woman to receive a doctorate from the University of Frankfurt, the first female dean of a fine arts college in the United States and the first woman to serve as president of a Florida university. At the age of 16, Kinne entered Iowa State Teachers College in Cedar Falls, now known as the University of Northern Iowa, and subsequently transferred to Drake University in Des Moines. She was a talented pianist and
FRAN KINNE STANDS BETWEEN BOB HOPE AND JACK BENNY AFTER THE MEN WERE AWARDED HONORARY DOCTORATES FROM JACKSONVILLE UNIVERSITY. REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM “IOWA GIRL: THE PRESIDENT WEARS A SKIRT” BY FRANCES BARTLETT KINNE
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FRAN KINNE JUST AFTER JACKSONVILLE UNIVERSITY WON THE SUNBELT TOURNAMENT WIN IN BIRMINGHAM, ALA. PHOTO BY DAVE MARTIN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
studied music at Drake. After teaching music at a number of central Iowa schools, Kinne became a U.S. Army Entertainer during World War II. She served as a United States Army Hostess at Camp Crowder in Missouri, ultimately becoming the head hostess in a program that served 70,000 troops. Following the war, while serving as the recreational director at a V.A. hospital in Leavenworth, Kan., she met her first husband Lt. Colonel Harry Kinne. While living in China in 1948, the Kinnes were evacuated from the country’s interior as the communist revolution occurred. During the Korean War, Harry was on General MacAuthur’s staff and Fran served as Director of Music and Assistant Entertainment Director for the Far East Command for the U.S. Army’s Special Services. In 1955, Harry accepted a command assignment in Germany and Fran began completing her PhD at the University of Frankfurt. It was here that she studied under professors such as the well-known Dr. Max Horkheimer. Upon returning to the U.S, Harry accepted a position with the Florida National Guard. The move to Florida was fateful as Fran became involved with Jacksonville University as a professor. It was here that Fran would become the first woman in the United States to serve as dean of a fine arts college. A short time later she would be the first woman to serve as president of a Florida university, holding that role at JU for 10 years from 1979 to 1989. Kinne’s tenure as president included the founding of the Davis College of Business and the Keigwin School of Nursing at JU. In 1989, she moved to the new role of JU’s chancellor, retiring from the role in 1994 but retaining the title of chancellor emerita. Even as she aged past a century of life, Fran continued to remain active, serving on multiple boards, including
