Brett Billings, emcee at the Ms. Life Care pageant, presents the Who’s Who certificate to resident Frances Carringer.
Frances Carringer has delivered babies and potato chips, been a security officer, sold cosmetics and prayed with actors on movie sets. She was officially inducted into the Tennessee Health Care Association’s Who’s Who in Tennessee Long-term Care.
Ms. Carringer, who now lives at Life Care Center of Cleveland, Tennessee, was born in Ducktown, Tenn. in 1925. Her father, a miner and pastor, taught her the value of hard work, and her mother encouraged her that she could do anything she put her mind to.
After high school, Mrs. Carringer started working as a practical nurse for a general practitioner. From delivering babies to attending surgeries, Mrs. Carringer did a lot. Once, she even helped pull an injured farmer out from under a plow when the doctor made a house call. “I loved nursing,” said Mrs. Carringer. “I loved helping others and being in the middle of things.”
After getting married, Mrs. Carringer faced a personal roadblock. She yearned to have a child, but she was told she would never have children. She kept praying to God, and she eventually got pregnant, giving birth to her son, Dave.
Mrs. Carringer’s husband owned Sunshine Potato Chip Company, distributing the chips, and some candy, within about a 100-mile radius of the North Carolina mountains where the family lived at the time. At one point, Mrs. Carringer herself began to drive the truck. At that time, a woman driving a truck was very unusual, but Mrs. Carringer was a hard worker and always did what needed to be done.
Her strength served her well. When Mrs. Carringer’s husband became abusive, she went through a divorce and then supported herself and Dave on her own. In the 1960s, Mrs. Carringer lived in Detroit for a few years and sold cosmetics at J. L. Hudson, a department store.
During that time, she got involved with the Billy Graham Crusades as a prayer partner. The organization partnered with several Christian movies and would show the films to large gatherings in Detroit. After the movie, a speaker would make an altar call, and Carringer and other volunteers would be available to pray with people. She would also pray on the sets of the movies – including “The Restless Ones.”
Mrs. Carringer returned to North Carolina in the late ’60s and got a job working in quality control for Litton Industries. The company manufactured materials used by the government for defense, as well as instruments used in the space program.
“Some of those parts were so minute that they had to use microscopes,” said Dave Carringer. “She was on that line for many years, and it took a toll on her eyes.”
When a job as a security officer opened up, Mrs. Carringer applied and got the position. She said, “It was because I was tall and I could do whatever they asked me to."
Mrs. Carringer patrolled the large compound, carrying a .38-caliber pistol. No one ever messed with her during her 25 years with the company.
No matter what she has done, she has always kept a positive outlook. “If you hit a stumbling block, keep your eyes on the Lord, and that stumbling block will turn into a step up,” Mrs. Carringer said.
At Life Care Center of Cleveland, Mrs. Carringer has been the Resident Council president and a former Ms. Life Care. She received her Who’s Who certificate during this year’s Ms. Life Care pageant in May.