Frances Herman of Federal Hill Road, Bolton Landing, died in Colorado at the age of 82 on April 12. Below is an obituary written by her daughter, journalist Katherine Lopez.

Frances Ulric Naughton Herman, 82, passed away April 12, 2011, surrounded by her loving family and friends at the Hospice Care Center in Grand Junction, Colo., eight days after suffering a stroke.

Born in the American Hospital in Paris, France, on June 25, 1928, she was the only child of Alexander Edward Anthony Naughton and Frances Ulric Cole. She came to New York City with her parents as a baby. After their divorce when she was seven, she moved back and forth between their various homes in New York City, Los Angeles, Palo Alto, Chicago and Paris as they pursued their respective careers: her father a French professor at Yale University and later Stanford University, and her mother a professional musician, composer and music educator.

Frances attended many schools during her childhood, including studies in Paris. As a teenager, she attended Lincoln School in New York City and later went on to Barnard College at the tender age of 16, studying for a liberal arts degree. She later received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Teaching from Goddard College in Vermont.

During her early years traveling with her father, she visited many museums and developed a passion for art. Her exposure to music began early as well, starting at age seven, when she began singing with her grandparents, Gustave Ulric and Emilie Cole, for various performances around the country. As a girl, she spent summers working for Winifred Tuttle on a farm in Bolton Landing, N.Y., now known as the Bixby farm on Federal Hill. During college, she was a medical research assistant at Barnard College, and a life model at New York University and at The Art Students League of New York. While looking for modeling jobs, she met Alfred Stieglitz who suggested she take up painting rather than pursue a career as a life model, which offered little opportunity. She worked for a while for Politz Market Research compiling data and translating proposals. At age 18, she married Peter Ceike, and set aside the idea of being an artist when the first two of her three children, Julian and Myra, were born. They later divorced and she married Evans Herman on Aug. 31, 1957, in New York City.

In 1958, they moved from the bustle of New York City to a quiet farm in Bolton Landing. In 1959, her third child, Katherine, was born.

It was not easy making a living in Bolton Landing, a resort town on Lake George in the Adirondack Mountains, especially during the winters, so, besides being a wife and mother, Frances wore many hats: she worked as a nurse for Dr. Leonard Busman; French and reading teacher at Bolton Central School and Chestertown School; tutor and advisor; art instructor; French translator assisting Canadian visitors at the Bolton Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center; waitress; and a Program Coordinator at the Glens Falls Senior Center. After retiring in 1983, she returned to art, creating close to 200 oil paintings, pastels and quilts of scenes from around her Federal Hill home and Lake George, many of which she entered in various art shows both in the Adirondacks and in New York City, including at the Ward-Nasse Gallery. She also served on the Friends of the Crandall Public Library board of trustees in Glens Falls, N.Y. as the gallery coordinator from 1991-97.

After her husband, Evans Herman, passed away on July 31, 2010, Frances moved to Fruita, Colo., to live with her daughter, Katherine. There she had a chance to see the magnificent landscapes and blue skies of the West and enjoy her two grandsons, Teagan and AJ. An excerpt from her journal reads, “This very powerful scenery – vast vistas that practically sneer at attempts to render them, are at me almost wherever I look.”  Though she missed her friends in New York, she made many new friends in the Grand Valley and delighted in the art and music scene, as well as the Mesa County Public Library and her family.

Frances is survived by her two daughters; Katherine Herman Lopez of Fruita, Colo., and Myra Herman South and her husband, Robert, of Oregon City, Ore.; her son, Julian Peter Ceike and his wife, Fredda of Townsend, Mass.; six grandchildren: AJ (Alexander) Grasso, Teagan Lopez, Colton South, Colin Wells, Seymour Ceike and Lauren Ceike.

Frances will be remembered as an unconventional thinker, a wonderful artist, photographer, mother, grandmother, teacher, poet, writer, avid reader, adventurer, conservationist, lover of animals, and a defender of those less fortunate. She will be greatly missed, but her shining light will go on forever in the brush strokes of her art, family and friends.

There will be no service. Cremation has taken place. All who knew her in the Grand Valley are invited to share a toast at Naggy McGee’s Irish Pub to the music of Stray Grass the evening of Friday, May 13, 2011. There will be a celebration of her life and art July 11, 2011 in Bolton Landing, N.Y. Contributions in Frances’ memory can be made to Hospice & Palliative Care of Western Colorado, 3090 B North 12th St., Grand Junction, CO 81506, the Bolton Free Library, P.O. Box 389, Bolton Landing, N.Y. 12814, or the Crandall Public Library, 251 Glen St., Glens Falls, N.Y. 12801.

Special thanks to the Hospice Care Center staff, Callahan-Edfast Mortuary, Dr. Rebecca Mashburn, Annie and Michael LeVan, Teagan Lopez, Jessica Nelson, Don Russell, Jacquie Chappell-Reid, The Daily Sentinel family, Legends Historic Sculptures committee, and to everyone who offered flowers, cards, food, kind words and support.