Page 24 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2017- Online Magazine

It is said that behind every great man is a great
The Gypsy Life woman. If true, one can only imagine the kind of
of a women you might find behind United States Marine
Corps Brigadier General Henry W. Hise and United
States Air Force Major General Dudley E. Faver. These
Military Wife remarkable women are Fran Hise and Dorris Faver,
though after visiting with them it seems inadequate
by Lindsey Grannan to say they were the women behind the men.

“Mother General” of Six Today, Fran confesses that when she
makes the occasional luxury purchase,
Mary Frances “Fran” Halcum was she tells herself, “‘Hank would want
born in an Alabama coal-mining me to have this,” and laughs with a
camp in 1925. At ten years of age, smile that reaches her eyes.
her father’s occupation required
the family move to Birmingham, Fran’s apartment wall at Carillon
where Fran spent the remainder of LifeCare Community holds photos
her childhood. She was 18 years old with dignitaries and celebrities
and attending a friend’s wedding alike, including President Lyndon
when she met the handsome man B. Johnson and Henry Kissinger. A
who would become her husband. candid shot shows Fran dancing with
Known as “Bill” in his hometown of Lawrence Welk while her husband
Shamrock, Texas, he lovingly became watches and leads the band in the
known as “Hank” to wife Fran. background. When asked about the
photo of her husband with President
Over General Hise’s 30-year military Richard Nixon, Fran tells of their time
career, the couple faced five combat spent at Air Station El Toro, located
tours in three wars, including World near Irvine, California. The Nixons
War II, Korea, and Vietnam. They had purchased a house on the West
six children between 1945 and 1962 coast, and El Toro was the nearest
and lived in 20-25 different places, government field big enough to
too many to track the exact number handle large aircraft. “One day Hank
or sequence of deployments. When came in and said, ‘We are going to
asked about this gypsy lifestyle, Fran start having the President.’ I said, ‘The
says, “When you’re young, I look back President of what?’ He said, ‘Of the
on it, and I think, how did I ever do United States!’”
that? But you did, and you do what
you have to do. Everything’s not General Hise passed away in 2010
always going to be perfect; that’s just and is buried in Arlington National
all there is to it.” Cemetery. Fran deeply misses his
companionship and remembers Hank
Fran was carrying their fifth child as being interested in everything,
when General Hise left for a 15-month not living a boring day in his life.
tour in Osaka, Japan. “I was pregnant “My husband does not fit the way a
when he left, and the baby was stereotype general would be. He was
walking and talking when he got kind of a paradox in a lot of ways…he
back. She had never heard a man’s loved philosophy and poetry and was
voice before, and it scared her.” Fran an artist.” In fact, atop the bookshelf
admits it was challenging living alone is a bust he sculpted of Fran in 1950,
with her children, but believes it built and he sculpted all of his six children
a stronger family unit because they and eight grandchildren. General
were in it together. Sometimes being Hise’s legacy lives in this artwork, in
“in it” meant moving and the money his service to this great country, and
running out before the paycheck above all, in Fran’s heart. “It was a
found them. “That only happened wonderful life. Of course, I’m biased.
one time, and I still remember it. I was He was an exceptional man.”
ready to kill him when he got home.”

24 Lubbock Senior Link