Frances “Frannie” Briatico-Kammer passed away at the age of 91 last Sunday, May 27, 2018; this time she took God’s Day of Rest to heart. This Memorial Day our ‘soul’dier of a mom is remembered. On Saturday, June 2, 2018, the family will receive friends at Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church from 9:00 a.m. – 9:45 a.m., followed by the Mass of Christian Burial at 10:00 a.m. Bright-Holland Funeral Home will make burial in the Evergreen Cemetery.
Mrs. Kammer was born July 6, 1926, to Antonio & Carmilla Staiti Briatico, immigrants from Sicily and Italy, and her Pa worked in the coal mines of Lynch, Kentucky; three years later they migrated to East Boston, Massachusetts to an Italian community. There they endured the Great Depression and food lines while her father worked for the WPA. She left school before graduating and went to work to help out the family. She has been a “giver” ever since, oh and don’t try to “out give” her; she would get you back every time.
When she got old enough her and her girlfriends would go down to Sculley Square to dance at the clubs with the sailor boys. That is where and when she met Leonard Kammer, Sr., Navy man from Texas who knew how to dance real smooth like. Shortly thereafter, they married in Boston and moved to Paris. Her Pa said in broken English, “too far, who’s going to take care of you, too far”. She said she didn’t’ have any idea what to expect in Texas; and often said, “You can take the Girl out of the City, but You can’t take the City out of the Girl”. Some of their friends said they looked like movie stars. Though far from her home, she always seemed to find a way to make you feel at home. She never met a stranger and always had a house full.
A stay-at-home mom, raising four boys till their youngest reached the age of 13, she then went to work at St. Joseph Hospital full time for 30 years which she loved, and where she met some of her closest friends that remain dear to her to this day. During those years she still managed to have supper ready for her family and make her a scrambled egg sandwich for her lunch the next day for work. She always made a large amount of sweet tea during the hot Texas summers for us boys and our friends, because we drank it from the large mason jars full of ice.
She was preceded in death by her parents, aunts, and uncles, husband, in-laws and out-laws, brothers and sisters, cousins and some really close friends from up north and down south as well.
She is survived by Leonard J. Kammer, Jr. and family; Kenny & Rita Kammer and family; Gary & Elaine Kammer and family; and Anthony J. “Tony” Kammer. In the Boston area both preceded and surviving: The Briatico Families, The Staiti Families, and The Ascolillo Families.
Pallbearers and Honorees will be: grandsons Jess, Stephen, Kale and Christopher Kammer; her “other sons” Alan Hardin and Mike Fleming; friends Monte Moore and Brad Stallings with Jim Stallings as honorary pallbearer. Special friends Joyce Coleman, Nancy Emerson and Jeri Cunningham.
Mom/Ma/MeMaw/Frannie lost her ability to walk and “shop” the last few months, but now like the song says “if anybody deserved a ticket to the other side” it was she, now she is walking on God’s Shopping Center Way.
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