Frances Brackman Staley

Frances Brackman Staley, 82, died of natural causes on July 18, 2023, at her beautiful home in Ruckersville, Virginia.  

Mrs. Staley was born on October 25, 1940, in Rainelle, West Virginia as the fourth of six children to the late Lester Lee Brackman and Ada Miller Brackman.  

She is predeceased by both her parents, her two sons, William (Brack) Joseph Staley and Alec Reuben Staley, her three sisters Janet Leigh Brackman, Jean Brackman Yoho, and Dorothy  Brackman Kroneberg. 

She is survived by her daughter Celeste Staley and spouse David John Jeffries, her daughter in-law Susie Marcinkiewicz, her brother Kenneth Ralph Brackman and spouse Evelyn Brackman, her sister Elizabeth Brackman Altizer, and many loving cousins, nieces, nephews and friends.  

Mrs. Staley spent her retirement years tending her large and beautiful garden in Ruckersville and with her wonderful Golden Retriever companion, Jackie. She was a devoted needlework and crochet artist, creating beautiful works which benefited many friends and family. She was an avid reader and loved to travel. She was an active member of the Greene County Women’s Club, where she immensely enjoyed and appreciated the wonderful  friendships and great support she had there. She was also able to travel to Africa to visit her daughter and to see Paris, France with her son and daughter in-law.  

She first graduated from St. Mary’s School of Nursing in Huntington, West Virginia with a Nursing Certification. She moved to Salt Lake City, Utah in 1976 to work as an RN at St. Marks Hospital,  Salt Lake City, Utah.  At that time, she earned a BA in Nursing at Westminster University, Salt Lake City. In 1994, she earned an MA in Nursing, specializing in Cardiology at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina while full-time working as an RN at Duke University Hospital. She then worked as a traveling nurse for several years in Saudia Arabia, Louisiana, and North Carolina before settling into her last nursing position at the University of Virginia Medical Center from where she retired. 

She was a strong, kind, loving, generous, funny, smart, hardworking, wonderful human being, who was very loved and will be greatly missed.  

A memorial celebration of her amazing life will be held in coming months, TBD.