Francine
Morris Swift, ASH, BSI
Hatty Doran (BSI: The Wigmore Street Post Office)
by Evelyn Herzog
Francine Swift was Francine Morris
when we first met back in the early 1970s. She was a recently-arrived resident
of Washington, D.C., and an enthusiastic member of The Red Circle, a group I
visited as often as possible. Francine was a university librarian, an
experienced Sherlockian, an independent woman, and an acute raconteur with a
deceptively mild Southern accent. When ASH was reborn in the mid-70s, we signed
her up as soon as possible, with the investiture “Hatty Doran.” She was an
Adventuress for more than thirty years. I can’t possibly do justice to her whole
life, so let me just sketch out some of the highlights of her career as an ASH.
Francine was one of the happy
seventeen who attended the first planned ASH dinner in January 1976, and then
caused a sensation at the 1977 costumed birthday dinner when she attended as
Hatty in rugged female prospector’s garb (left) and
subsequently got into a mock-tussle with lady-of-the-evening Kitty Winter as
portrayed by Kate Karlson. (A rock hammer beats a feather boa every time!) But
Hatty Doran was a lady, too, with a fine needlewoman’s accomplishments: That
same 1977 January weekend, she had a featured piece in our “Quick, Watson, the
Needle!” needlework exhibition -- a
magnificently-decorated chambray shirt she had embroidered with insignia from
each of the Canonical tales.
Always
reliable as a speaker, whether scheduled or extemporaneous, she for many years
gave the toast to Queen Victoria at all ASH gatherings. Only in her absence did
that honor pass to Bertie Pearson and then to Mickey Fromkin. Over the years
Francine treated us to quizzes, sketches, and impromptu anecdotes. None raised
greater hilarity than her account of her scientific culinary investigation of
“the parsley in the butter” (SIXN). You can find it in
Serpentine Muse-ings, Vol. Two, but it’s hard to convey in print the
rising pitch and increasing outrage of Francine’s voice as she detailed her
frustrations in the quest. Francine also assisted as the narrator in the
world-renowned Reverse Strip Tease performed at the January 1980 ASH dinner by
Marina Stajic.
Once
Francine and Wayne Swift married – one of the great Sherlockian romances – Wayne
often became a collaborator in her contributions to the ASH dinners and the
Muse. The themes of many of their shared avocations – including
horse-racing, their dogs, their travels with the London society, Gilbert &
Sullivan, puns – all found their way into their writings and performances for
us. At right is the drawing of Hatty Doran that Wayne made into a card for
Francine – note the crossed rock hammer and roses below the portrait.
Already an Adventuress of
long-standing, Francine became “The Woman” for the BSI in 1983, then,
deservedly, a Baker Street Irregular in 1994 – one of the few to achieve that
“triple crown”. Her BSI investiture “The Wigmore Street Post Office” was a wink
at Francine’s prolific interest in the happenings of her friends and willingness
to circulate information.
Wayne’s death in 2001 after
twenty-four years of marriage but twenty years of fighting cancer was a blow
from which Francine never really recovered, despite her strong Christian faith,
her gallant spirit, and the support of her large circle of friends. Her death
now brings back to us the image of Francine in her prime – her erudition on so
many topics, her enthusiasm in Sherlockian activities, her brilliance as an
anecdotalist notwithstanding a pesky stutter, her generosity, her love of God
and enjoyment of the minutiae of church worship, her cultivation of her friends
throughout the world, her ability to alternate between a Southern lady’s
gentility and an outdoor woman’s bluntness, and her rollicking humor. So thank
you, Francine: you gave us all a lot, most of all an example of how to be a good
Sherlockian and a good woman.
So long, chum.
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