Shortly after her older brother joined the military during World War II, Frances Jennings signed on with the Women’s Army Corps and trained as a physical therapist.
She found she had a knack for it.
After the war and college, Mrs. Jennings worked as a substitute physical therapist at Chicago’s St. Anne’s Hospital and the Bohemian Home for the Aged, while raising her nine children.
Since her youngest was in school, she joined Chicago Public Schools as a full-time physical therapist at the now-shuttered Spalding High School on the Near West Side, the city’s first public school exclusively for students with disabilities.
“She was caring, knowledgeable, hardworking, intuitive and vibrant — everything you could possibly want in a physical therapist,” said former colleague Paul Berg, who worked as a physical therapist alongside Mrs. Jennings at Spalding, and later at Hanson Park Elementary School on the Northwest Side. “Being the mother of so many children, she was also very nurturing, and the kids tended to gravitate towards her.”
Mrs. Jennings, 90, died of natural causes Tuesday, Feb. 17, at Presence Resurrection Life Center, a nursing facility in Chicago.
“When I was young, she’d share her work experiences with me with so much enthusiasm, it’s the reason I went into the profession,” said her daughter, Kathy McGinnis, who lives in New York and is a physical therapist. “She loved helping patients improve and manage their disabilities.”
Born Frances Berresheim in Oak Park, Mrs. Jennings lived with her family on the West Side. During World War II, she was stationed in California, where she cared for wounded soldiers, many in rehabilitation after losing a limb.
After her service, she returned to Chicago and attended DePaul University, then later Northwestern University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in physical therapy.
While working on a project at Northwestern, Mrs. Jennings was awarded a patent for a modified metal goniometer — a measuring instrument used in physical therapy — after she developed a plastic version of it, making it easier and more efficient for physical therapists to use. She also co-authored an article describing the device that appeared in the Journal of the American Physical Therapy Association in 1949.
“She was smart, creative and inventive, and had so many talents and skills,” said her son, John.
After graduating from Northwestern, she worked as a physical therapist in the downtown office of a podiatrist. She married John Jennings in 1952, and the couple moved to the Northwest Side, where they began raising a family.
“When she was working as a substitute, she’d come home after putting in an eight-hour day and make us dinner, never McDonald’s or White Castle,” said her daughter, Kathy. “And it wasn’t just five or six people. It was a freaking army!”
In the early 1970s, Mrs. Jennings began a nearly two-decade career with CPS. She left Spalding in the early 1980s and worked at Hanson Park until her retirement in 1990.
“I used to look at her and think, ‘How does she do all this during the day and then go home and raise nine kids?'” said Berg, recalling their many years working together. “But then again, this was Fran, and she was pretty extraordinary.”
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Other survivors include seven daughters, Maureen Nerger, Nancy Odon, Judith Annes, Suzanne Tracy, Patricia Hodge, Jeanne Sadowski and Barbara McGinn; 19 grandchildren; and two great-granddaughters.
Her husband died last year.
Services were held.