Frances Marie Vansyoc

   Frances Marie (Metzner, Buck) Vansyoc (Fran) beloved wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, sister, aunt and friend, passed away peacefully on May 27th, 2023, at the age of eighty-four.  Joseph Vansyoc, her husband of thirty-eight years, was by her side.

Fran was born in 1938 in Rocky Ford, Colorado to Frank and Evelyn Metzner.  She grew up living on farms in the La Junta area, and in Fowler, Colorado where she graduated from Fowler High School in 1956. Fran attended the University of Colorado in Boulder where she studied art education and political science.  She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Administration in 1974. She went on to work for the Boulder County Housing Authority and then the City of Englewood Housing Authority.  Fran met and married the love of her life and best friend Joseph Vansyoc in 1984 and spent her final 38 years by his side.  They lived in Canon City, Colorado where she worked with the administration at the Odd Fellows Manor until retirement. 

Fran’s children were the great joy in her life, and she raised them with unconditional love, humor, and compassion for others.  She instilled in them the belief that they could accomplish anything that they put their minds to and to be objective, independent thinkers. Fran was a woman of many passions including her cats, art, reading (she said her favorite book was probably the one she was reading at the time), hiking and camping, history, gardening, politics, genealogy, geology, quilting, crochet, needlepoint, birdwatching, and she especially loved her Denver Broncos, Denver Nuggets, and Colorado Rockies. Fran authored a delightful and insightful online blog, “Toad Haven Annex2”, for several years after retirement.  In her own words, her Christian faith was her purpose, strength and comfort.

She will be lovingly remembered and dearly missed by her husband, Joseph Vansyoc, children: Carl Wayne Buck, Michal Ann Haywood, Kathleen Elaine (Greg) Vansyoc, and Sharon Louise Cockayne; Stepchildren: Lori (Tom) Weeth, Douglas (Tracie) Vansyoc and Greg (Kathy) Vansyoc, by her brother Steve Metzner, and her cat Chin-Chin.  Fran had nine grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren.

Fran was preceded in death by her parents, Frank and Evelyn Metzner, in-laws Earl and Mary Elsie Vansyoc, and by former husbands Charles Buck and Louis Jonas.

A celebration of Fran’s life will be held on Saturday July 1st, 2023 at 2:00 pm at Michal Ann Haywood’s house in Wheat Ridge, CO.  Please reach out to a family member for details.

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