Frances Rich

• Name — Frances Rich • Birth Name — Irene Frances Luther Deffenbaugh • Born — 8 January 1910 • Birthplace — Spokane, Washington, U.S. • Died — 14 October 2007 • Place of death — Payson, Arizona, U.S. • Occupation — Actress and sculptor

Frances Rich was born January 8, 1910, in Spokane, Washington, U.S., to silent screen actress Irene Frances Luther Rich and salesman Elvo Elcourt Deffenbaugh. Her step-father was Charles Rich, who adopted her when he married her mother. Rich attended Smith College, from which she graduated in 1931.

Rich made her film debut in Diamond Trail (1933), after which she acted in Zoo in Budapest (1933) and Pilgrimage (1933). She also appeared on Broadway in Brief Moment from November 1931 through February 1932.

Born in Spokane, Washington, Rich received a B.A. from Smith College in 1931. In 1933 she met sculptor, Malvina Hoffman, and studied with her in Paris for two years. Upon returning to America, she did intensive work at the Boston Museum School and established her own studio in New York City. Between 1937 and 1940 she was a resident student at Cranbrook Academy of Art. There she met sculptor Carl Milles, with whom she worked for the next eighteen years. • Illustration — Fran Rich Her works include portrait busts at Smith College; the Army-Navy Nurse Monument in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.; a bronze pelican in front of Pelican Building, University of California, Berkeley; marble bust of Alice Stone Blackwell for the Boston Central Library (featured on the Boston Women's Heritage Trail); and portrait busts of Lotte Lehmann, Margaret Sanger, Diego Rivera, Katharine Hepburn, among others. Architectural sculpture by Rich includes six monumental limestone bas reliefs at the Purdue University student union building, executed in 1938.

Rich died in Payson, Arizona, on October 14, 2007, aged 97.

She also worked under the name Deffenbaugh. The authorities additionally record the headings Frances I. Rich, Irene Frances Luthern Deffenbaugh and Frances L. Her recorded language was English. She was the child of Irene Rich.