FrancEyE

FrancEyE
FrancEyE
Born	Frances Dean Smith; March 19, 1922; San Rafael, California, U.S.
Died	June 2, 2009 (aged 87); Greenbrae, California, U.S.
Occupation	Poet
Spouse	Wray Smith (? - 1960) (divorced)
Children	5

FrancEyE aka Frances Dean Smith (March 19, 1922 – June 2, 2009), was an American poet.

Biography

Frances Dean Smith was born Frances Elizabeth Dean, in San Rafael, California, on March 19, 1922. During her childhood her family moved to the East Coast, where she grew up.^[1]

She married Wray Smith while living on the East Coast. They had four daughters, Patricia, Irene, Sara, and Ruth, and eventually divorced. Frances returned to California in 1963, leaving her daughters with their father.^[1]

She was closely associated with the Southern California poetry community. She is also noted for her relationship with poet Charles Bukowski, with whom she had her fifth daughter and his only child, Marina Louise Bukowski.^[1] Charles Bukowski wrote a poem about Frances which has been used as a eulogy, "One for Old Snaggle-Tooth" (1977).^[2]

Throughout her long career as a writer she never sought to capitalize on her connection to Bukowski and was revered as “The Bearded Witch of Santa Monica.” She died from complications of a hip fracture in Marin General Hospital in Greenbrae, California, early on June 2, 2009.^[1]

Works

Four Poets, (Ruth Wire, Grace Bogart, Joanne Stell, S.S.Veri), written under the pseudonym S.S. Veri
Snaggletooth in Ocean Park, poems, 1996 (The Sacred Beverage Press)
Amber Spider, poems, 2004 (Pearl Press)
Grandma Stories, short stories (with drawings by Tim Donnelly), 2008
Call, poems, 2009 (Rose of Sharon Press)