1885 – 1904
Frances around age 2
Frances Parkinson Wheeler was born in the James Monroe House in Charlottesville, Virginia, on July 21st, 1885. Her father, John Wheeler, was a Greek professor at the University of Virginia. Her mother, Louise Fuller Johnson Underhill Wheeler, was a widowed New York socialite. After her father’s death in 1887, Frances was taken to Newbury, Vermont to be raised by her mother, splitting their time between Boston and Newbury.
While in Boston, her mother joined the newly created Daughters of the American Revolution, and married Albert Pillsbury, a prominent lawyer and politician and one of her late husband John’s best friends. Frances began writing at the age of seven, writing a short story and a Christmas Pageant. Her enthusiasm for writing was strongly discouraged by her mother, who at one point ripped up a manuscript Frances had written in order to dissuade her from writing fiction. When Frances was nine, her mother divorced Albert and ran off with Frances to Europe for a year. Accompanied by her treasured dolls, Frances traveled throughout Europe, learning to speak French and German and became a voracious reader. Upon their return to the states, she attended Miss Windsor’s School in Boston where she excelled, mastering German, Latin, Greek, history, and calculus, despite her numerous health problems. Her childhood and early teens was spent between accompanying her mother to Europe and studying at school.
At fifteen, Frances became romantically involved with Henry Wilder “Harry” Keyes, a banker, farmer, and politician who served in both the New Hampshire House of Representatives and the state Senate. Due to their alarming age difference of 23 years, the relationship was kept secret despite becoming engaged two years later. Louise was extremely displeased with the engagement, and took Frances to Europe until either they broke it off so Frances could go to college, or Henry made their engagement public. After she had been in Europe for almost a year, Henry conceded and their engagement was announced, and they were married on June 8th, 1904.
1904 – 1918
Life as a newlywed was followed quickly by the birth of three children: Henry (1905), John (1907), and Francis “Peter” (1912). Her focus during this period of her life was raising and educating her sons. Despite her husband’s political career and agricultural ventures, Frances often found the family running low on money, with Henry complaining about the cost of caring for her and the children. Like Louise, Henry was unreceptive to Frances’s writing, and she in turn created a small space in their attic where she would write in secret during her spare time.
Frances reading to her sons John (L) and Henry (R).
In 1916, Henry was elected governor of New Hampshire, and after his inauguration in 1917, Frances entered a more public role as the governor’s wife. She would attend multiple social functions and charity events as a representative of her husband, at one point christening a ship in his stead. Henry also had a fear of public speaking, and Frances began to give speeches on his behalf, earning her the nickname “Lieutenant Governor.”
In 1918, after only one year as governor, Henry campaigned to be Senator, and he won in a landslide. Just two months after his term as governor ended, the family moved to Washington D.C. for his new job. It was also during this time that Frances’s first novel, “The Old Gray Homestead” was published. It was a momentous occasion for Frances, proving her capabilities to her husband and her mother, and it marked the beginning of her long and successful literary career.
Further Reading:
Roses in December – Frances Parkinson Keyes
All Flags Flying – Frances Parkinson Keyes
Sources:
Frances Keyes, Roses in December (1966).
Frances Keyes, All Flags Flying (1972).