FrancEyE


FrancEyE aka Frances Dean Smith, was an American poet.

Biography

Frances Dean Smith was born Frances Elizabeth Dean, in San Rafael, California, on March 19, 1922. During her childhood her family moved to the East Coast, where she grew up.
She married Wray Smith while living on the East Coast. They had four daughters but eventually divorced and Frances returned to California in 1963, leaving her children with her now ex-husband.
She was closely associated with the Southern California poetry community. She is also noted for her relationship with poet Charles Bukowski, with whom she had her fifth daughter and his only child, Marina Louise Bukowski. Charles Bukowski wrote a poem about Frances which has been used as a eulogy, "One for Old Snaggle-Tooth".
Throughout her long career as a writer she never sought to capitalize on her connection to Bukowski and was revered as “The Bearded Witch of Santa Monica.” She died from complications of a hip fracture in Marin General Hospital in Greenbrae, California, early on June 2, 2009.

Works