Frances Burke Urr
May 7, 1955 - September 20, 2024
Frances Burke-Urr, who belongs to God, returned to Him on September 20, 2024, when her valiant and courageous battle against cancer ended. She was the love of her husband's life, Clifford Urr, who loved and cherished her more than any words from the greatest poets could ever possibly express. She was also very beloved to her many friends and family members, all whose lives were deeply touched and impacted by her generosity, kindness, affection, warmth, and love, and they will miss her dearly.
Frances "Frannie" was born in Newark, NJ, on May 7, 1955. Her family later moved to Perth Amboy, NJ, where she graduated from St. Mary's High School in 1973. She graduated from Seton Hall University, majoring in art history and classical studies, with a Summa Cum Laude, in 1977. She later earned a master's degree in library/information science from Rutgers University. As she liked to say, most people become librarians after working in another occupation, but she wanted to become a librarian from the beginning, since she was a child, because she loved reading books, which always remained a major part of her life. Her first library jobs were in New Jersey. She started her career at the Edison Public Library. After a few years there, she moved on to the Piscataway Pubic Library, where she worked many years, and was promoted to Assistant Director of the library and simultaneously held the position of Manager at one of the library's branches.
She and Cliff married on April 7, 1984, at Seton Hall's Miraculous Medal Chapel. They lived two years in the Clara Barton section of Edison and nearby the Fords area. During this time, they drove up every Friday night to the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge auditorium to watch performances of folk and Celtic music from leading performers of this musical genre, and this was one of the most special and memorable times in their life. Cliff and Fran moved to Virginia, and Fran took a position with the Fauquier County Public Library in 1990, and worked there until 2018. She had the title of Collection Development Manager upon retiring. Fran and Cliff together lived in Fauquier County, VA, for 28 years. After reaching retirement, Fran and Cliff moved into a house built by her grandfather in 1939. Surrounded by hilly farmland, pastures, streams, and trees, and including a barn, it is located in the Connelly Springs area of western North Carolina. She was blessed to experience idyllic summers almost every year as a child and teen at this property.
Frances especially loved reading, as a voracious reader, murder mysteries, biographies and memoirs. Her favorite mystery writers were Arthur Conan Doyle (who invented fictional detective Sherlock Holmes), and Agatha Christie. Another novelist who she loved was North Carolina's Jan Karon. After moving to North Carolina, Fran discovered the writings of author Gladys Taber, whose themes of nature, animals, life and things that are timeless deeply resonated with Fran's experience during the final chapters of her life at her home in the North Carolina foothills.
Frannie loved art and she made sure to decorate her home with carefully selected and gorgeous prints, art, statues, flowers, stones and minerals. She had an extremely sharp artistic eye, and as her husband always told her, she could have successfully worked as an interior designer, if she wanted. Frances was an excellent writer who wrote, in her twenties, a weekly arts review column for the Evening News in Perth Amboy, working under the drama and arts critic, poet, playwright and mentor, Mirko Tuma. Fran's other talents included cooking that was often so well done that it seemed to equal or exceed meals made in high-end restaurants. She played piano, which her father taught her, and classical flute. In her retired years, she learned how to become a gardener of flowers and vegetables. She completed the "Master Gardener" online extension course offered in North Carolina and was told that, after completing the test for the course, she passed it with the highest grade ever made by anyone who took the class!
Frances loved to travel. With her husband, she visited the Grand Canyon and other parts of Arizona, Nova Scotia, the White Mountains of New Hampshire, both the Maine and Cape May coasts many times, the states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Florida (lived there for a year), South Carolina many times, Tennessee, Georgia, Washington (Seattle), and Pittsburgh, PA, and hiked the Sierras in Nevada. The most transcendent, spiritual and memorable trip that Frances and Cliff ever took together was to Scotland. She also took trips with friends and church groups to Italy, Toronto, London and other parts of England.
Frances had many talents and travelled to many places, but far more important than these things to her was her Christian faith. She loved Jesus and his mother Mary very, very much. As a Roman Catholic, she was deeply devout and prayerful, attending church every single Sunday, plus all holy days, and was an avid viewer of numerous religious shows presented on the Catholic-themed cable channel, EWTN. She regularly listened to her priest brother's recorded homilies on YouTube, which always inspired her, especially when she could not make it to his church, Immaculate Conception, in Forest City, NC. Also, during her years at Fauquier County, Fran was a hard-working volunteer in several Catholic lay and charitable groups.
Fran leaves behind or is rather patiently awaiting to join her, in Heaven, the arrival of her beloved husband, Clifford Urr, and her beloved brother, Father Herbert Burke, plus many in-laws, cousins and other relatives from the Burke and especially Propst clan in North Carolina too numerous to mention. Frances is preceded in death by her father, Herbert Burke; mother, Patsy Burke (Propst); brother, Tom Burke; Aunt Frances Megargle, her dad's sister (who was like a second mother to her and who Frances was named after), Aunt Sue Fry, Aunt Anne Martin, Aunt Kay Propst, and Aunt Ruth Bradley.
The Mass of Christian Burial will be 12:30 p.m. on Monday, September 30, 2024, at the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church, celebrated by The Very Reverend Fr. Herbert Burke, V.F., with interment to follow at 3:15 p.m. in Burke Memorial Park, Morganton, NC. The family will hold a Wake from 4 to 6 p.m. on Sunday at the Padgett and King Mortuary, Forest City. Recitation of the Holy Rosary will follow at 6 p.m. in the funeral home chapel.
Memorials may be made to Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church, 1024 West Main Street, Forest City, NC 28043.
The Padgett and King Mortuary is in charge of arrangements and an online guest registry is available at .