Miss Lucile May Francke's biography is a case study of noblesse oblige: she was a wealthy Southern girl whose guiding principle was the idea that those who are blessed with riches should use them to assist the less fortunate. In one sense, her life was as characteristic of late nineteenth century American aristocratic life as an ornate Victorian mansion, yet there was an element of liberalism in her outlook that put her in tune with some of mid-twentieth century America's most progressive movements.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1885, Miss Francke grew up in Tennessee, where she was educated to the ninth grade by private tutors. Later, she studied at various Midwestern public and girls' schools, eventually graduating with honors from May Wright Sewall's Classical School. Her education included training in the arts, and she studied violin, piano, and voice both in the United States and in Europe. Miss Francke's formal education never ended: she took an A.B. degree from the University of Utah with a library certificate in 1944, and did graduate work at the University of Chicago, Columbia University, and even Oxford University.

Miss Francke's stepfather, F. B. Robinson, worked for the Oregon Short Line Railroad, and his transfer brought the entire family to Utah. They lived first in Milford then in Salt Lake City. The first notice we have of her presence in Utah is an article in the Society Pages in 1910, which calls her "One of Salt Lake's most popular young society girls." She was employed first as a teacher, then as a librarian in various Salt Lake City schools, including East High School, Bryant and Horace Mann Junior High Schools and Rowland Hall School for Girls.

Why she never married is a biographical mystery. The values of the society in which she grew up held marriage very highly, and her photograph in the in 1910 shows her to have been a very desirable quarry for some bachelor.

Unencumbered by domestic obligations, Miss Francke devoted her energies to public life. As a natural outgrowth of her teaching career, she helped establish libraries in elementary schools and introduced extra-curricular activities. Clippings and school papers she saved reveal especial interests in talent shows and athletics.

Miss Francke sponsored various theater and concert events, and a significant portion of her papers consists of programs and clippings regarding those productions. A list of "musical and society people of Ogden" in her papers reveals that she attempted in 1913 to arrange in that city for concerts by the Salt Lake Quintette. In 1915 she brought James Goddard, a baritone with the Chicago Grand Opera Company, to Salt Lake City for a concert.

Not content to remain in the wings while providing engagements for other performers, Miss Francke was herself an actress who appeared in theatrical productions in Salt Lake City. She appeared in a 1910 production of Alice E. Ives's "The Sweet Elysium Club" by the Ladies' Literary Club of Mt. Olympus and in 1913 she played in a comedy called "The Concert" at the Utah Theater.

She became a registered nurse, and worked with doctors to provide treatment and isolation for tuberculosis patients. She was also active in politics, and sponsored a bill to provide absentee ballots for shut-ins. Finally, she was a leader in women's clubs in Utah and at the regional level, and wrote a history of the Federated Women's Clubs of Utah.

Miss Francke's application in 1912 for a listing in the reveals something of her personality and her conception of her role in society. She identified herself politically as a member of the American Progressive Party, but a handwritten addition says, "later Republican," thus making it likely that she was one of the aristocratic liberal Republicans who bolted the party with Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 but quickly returned when Roosevelt's political life ended. Regarding her social role, she says, "With a precedent established by my mother, I have always been identified with social, philanthropic, and club life. . . . I am known in Salt Lake as one of the 'young set,' and a worker for advancement and high standards."

Even though she embraced so much of Utah's cultural life, Miss Francke never completely divested herself of her Southern heritage. She remained, for example, an active Episcopalian (though, curiously, her papers reveal an intense interest in astrology as well). Upon her death in 1969, she was buried in McMinnville, Tennessee.