Frances Edith (Piper) Kay, 87, of Evans City died Wednesday at Passavant Retirement Community.

Frances was born on Jan. 20, 1925, in Butler, to Hiram S. Piper and Mabel Brown. Frances married Greydon A. Kay on Sept. 29, 1962, in Butler. To this union were born a son, Allen Greydon, and a daughter, Amy Kathleen. They raised their children and lived in Evans City for 46 years until moving to Passavant Retirement Community in 2008.

Frances graduated as the salutatorian of the Butler High School Class of 1943. After graduation, she was employed for 19 years at Penn Drake Oil Refinery in Butler where she worked her way up to an executive secretary. Frances loved to travel, and during these years she took many road trips with her girlfriends to Erie, Niagara Falls, New York City and California.

Frances was very involved in her children’s lives and their activities, and served as a den mother and Girl Scout leader. Frances and Greydon loved to travel and took the family camping each summer in a tent trailer and station wagon to Pymatuning State Park for a couple weeks, then went on big trips to New England, Florida, Texas and finally a month long trip to California. She would often gather up the children in the evening and take them fishing with their friends to Moraine State Park or to the local swimming pool.

After the children went to college, Frances took up her passion for gardening and writing. Every inch of dirt around their house was replaced with flowers and shrubs. Indoor houseplants thrived under her care. Frances completed extensive research on the Piper family and started to write a book about her life growing up in the coal mining community of Costco.

Survivors include her husband of 49 years, Greydon of Evans City; one son, Allen (Sue) of Derwood, Md.; one daughter, Amy (Brad) of Hermosa, S.D.; grandsons, Ian, Colin and Brian; one granddaughter, Nicole; one sister-in-law, Doris Piper of Titusville; and eight nieces and nephews and their children.

She is preceded in death by her parents; one brother, James Piper; one sister, Pearl Sietz; and one brother-in-law, Ray Sietz.

KAY — The family of Frances Edith Piper Kay, who died Wednesday, May 23, 2012, will welcome friends from noon until the time of a memorial service at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Boylan Funeral Home, 116 E. Main St., Evans City.

Interment will be later.

Online condolences and directions are available at www.boylanfuneralhome.com.