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Frances Zollner Haban: Painting Through The Years Frances Zollner Haban turned 102 this March. Her daughter, Mary, wrote this biography to commemorate her 100th birthday. Frances Zollner Haban is truly a home-grown talent. She has resided in Columbus all these years since she arrived here from Austria at the age of 2. The area of Columbus, now called German Village, is where she grew up with her parents and five brothers and sisters. She attended St. Mary’s Church and schools there, graduating from St. Mary’s High School in 1924. As a child, she was taught to crochet by her mother, and has continued that creative activity ever since. Although her crocheting now consists mostly of colorful lap robes, and the blankets for Project Linus [Donated to Children’s Hospital], over the years she has crocheted all types of things, such as afghans, baby clothes, women’s vests, wall hangings, hats, scarves, and on and on. She began serious painting in her late teens, taking lessons at the YWCA. Then and in her early twenties, she did beautiful tinting of photographs. (She was an avid photographer ever since she received her first camera, an early Kodak. This probably trained her eyes for the beautiful scenes she painted later in life.) She married Stephen P. Haban in 1931, and they had four children: Steve, Mary, Jean and Jim. The time she gave to her family of four children made it impossible for her to continue her painting during that time, until about 1955 (when her children were mostly grown). Around that time, she and husband Steve began going to Fort Myers Beach, Florida for a part of every winter, and there she found some wonderful art teachers and a great group of prospective artists, active in quite a variety of media. Her time for continuous and varied art activities had arrived! She continued her work in Columbus, particularly at Gables Studio. She had lessons under Leland McClelland and Emerson Burkhart. Oil painting became her main achievement, and she produced many fine pictures from then until the early 1990’s. You’ve seen some of these here at Kensington, and she has an album of photos of many of the others she has done. These paintings can be found in quite a few homes in Columbus, including the homes of many of her Zollner and Haban relatives – gifts given and often “expected” on special occasions such as weddings! In addition, she was asked to paint a mural at the Germania Club in 1966, a large landscape which is still there. Frances has produced works in many other fields of the arts such as ceramics, etching on aluminum, paper crafts and various yarn crafts in addition to her continuing crocheting. One other artistic activity that must be recognized is her frequent teaching of art and craft activities to children – nieces, nephews, grandchildren, neighborhood children, children of friends and Cub Scouts. Her 100th birthday became a time when many of them recalled her affection for them, and the attention she gave them, and the arts they learned from her. Some of them produced clever and beautiful items for her 100th birthday in 2006. She treasures these items and their appreciative words. Frances has lost half her immediate family by now, losing husband Steven in 1983, son Steve in 1986 and daughter Jean in 1998. Her remaining children, Mary and Jim, whom many of you know, love her very much and are very proud of her. She moved to Kensington in 1995 and has loved living here ever since. -- Mary F. Haban, 2007 |
Click on a link below to learn about other exciting news taking place at Kensington Place. Kensington Place Celebrates the Chinese New Year |
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