Fran Weissenberg
Fran Weissenberg first came to the attention of the Tucson feminist community as the mother of Debbie Weissenberg a Tucson Women's Commissioner. But Fran deserves honor in her own right. In 1948 married and with two children at home she resumed a full-time teaching career in New York's Spanish Harlem which would last 14 years after which she became a school librarian for another 14. She and Debbie's father followed their daughter to Tucson in 1986 and lived here ever since. In 1987 at the age of 75 Fran published her first book a children's novel about Jewish immigrants to New York entitled The Streets were Paved with Gold. The book won the Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award from the Association of Jewish Libraries. Her second book a collection of drawing poetry and remembrances entitled Bits of the Heart was published on her 90th birthday. She has been honored for her painting her sculpture (a bronzed head of her husband) her poetry her dedication to the local women's movement and above all for enabling daughter Debbie to make her contribution to the Tucson women's movement.