Frances Christy Cline, 83, of Madison Street in Alexandria, Va., died Wednesday at her home after a long illness.

Born April 6, 1921, on the Christy family farm in Parker Township, near Fairview, she was a daughter of Claude F. and Sara N. Maharg Christy.

She was a former member of the North Washington Presbyterian Church; and in her later years, she attended services at an Episcopal church near her home in Alexandria.

Mrs. Cline was a graduate of Fairview Township Karns City High School, now Karns City High School, where she was a forward on the girls' basketball team. After graduation, she attended The Butler Business College.

In the early 1940s, she traveled to Washington, D.C., and ultimately became a legislative assistant on Capitol Hill, where she worked with the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives and retired after years.

Surviving are two brothers and sisters-in-law, Frank and Ruth Christy of Warren, Warren County, and Glenn and Mary Elizabeth Christy of New Castle; a sister, Louie Christy Weldon of Atlantic Beach, Fla.; and a stepson, James Cline and his wife, Irene, of Fort Worth, Texas. Two step-grandchildren and several nieces and nephews also survive.

Her husband, Garner James Cline, died in 1990. A sister, Jennie Hayes, and a brother, William Samuel Christy, also preceded her in death.

CLINE - Funeral services for Frances Christy Cline, who died Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2004, will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at North Washington Union Cemetery with the Rev. Edward Lowrey, pastor of the Memorial Church of Our Father of Foxburg, officiating. Burial will follow at the cemetery.RICHARD D. HILLIS FUNERAL HOME, Petrolia, is handling arrangements, Petrolia.