Fran Jensen

Patricia Frances (Fran) Jensen, 76, of McKinney, Texas passed away on December 31, 2023, at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas.

Frances was born in Dallas, Texas to William Wilford Looney and Patricia Marion Looney (Sibley) on February 13, 1947. She went to high school at Sunset High School and graduated in 1965. She went on to earn a bachelor's degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She worked as a graphic artist at DalCap, Harris, EDS and as a furniture sales representative at Gabbert's, Stacy's, and Anderson's.

Fran and Jim met in 1980 when Fran came to work at Harris Data Communications division where Jim was already employed. Jim was welcoming Fran to the company, and she asked Jim where he was from originally. Jim responded a little town in Louisiana. Fran said fairly forcefully, “What town?” to which Jim responded Natchitoches. As it turned out both Fran's mother and Jim's mother were from Natchitoches, Both Fran and Jim had graduated from Louisiana State University Baton Rouge but attended at different times. These commonalities as well as many others resulted in Jim and Fran marrying in 1981.

Fran loved animals and she had both dogs and cats for most of her life. For a number of years, she had her own pet sitting business. Fran was very artistic and decorated the most beautiful Christmas trees and home. This past Christmas she put up three trees. She was active in the Women's Division of the Plano Chamber of Commerce for several years and served as a Director of the Women's Division.

In 1982 she quit smoking and started to exercise to control her weight. This led to a lifelong athletic career. She won many trophies running races and completed nine marathons including Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, and Boston. James took up cycling to maintain his health and eventually Frances also took up cycling. That led to several years of Frances participating in duathlons. She convinced a local race director to add a number of duathlons to his race schedule and she named several. One was called the Two White Dogs duathlon after her husky and spitz. She also traveled the country participating in qualifying duathlons for the USA Duathlon Team. She qualified as an age grouper several times and participated in the World Duathlon Championships three times including racing in Italy and Spain. In 2010 she successfully climbed Gray's peak in Colorado summit-ting at 14,278 feet.

In 2014 the Jensen's moved from Plano to McKinney. Frances joined the McKinney YMCA and built many strong relationships. Her regular routine was to take classes at the YMCA five days a week and run on the weekends. She exercised seven days a week until shortly prior to her death. She built a large group of friends at the Plano Pacers and the McKinney YMCA.

Frances also loved to travel, primarily to Europe. Trips included Italy, Germany, Austria, United Kingdom, Hungary, Czechia, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Monaco, Greece, a river cruise from the south of France to Paris, a river cruise from St. Petersburg to Moscow, small boat cruise along the coast of Croatia from Split to Dubrovnik and back. Both Frances and James fell in love with Paris and loved to rent an apartment on the Ile Saint Louie overlooking the Seine.

Frances is survived by her husband James (Jim); daughter, Heather Walker; brother Warren Looney and his wife Julie; brother Bill Looney; niece Erin Carlson; and nephew Ryan Looney and many cousins. She is preceded in death by her father William Looney and mother Patricia Looney.

There will be a Celebration of Life service to honor Fran on Friday, January 19, 2024, at 2:00 p.m. in the chapel at Allen Family Funeral Options.