Biography: Mary Elizabeth Mosse Frothingham was born in 1930 in Jinan (Tsinan), Shandong Province, China. Her English father, Francis Henry “Robin” Mosse, was a physician on the faculty of the medical school at Cheeloo University. Her Minnesotan mother, Alice (Anderson) Mosse, came to China to work for the YMCA.
Mary told vivid stories of growing up in China: a gecko falling from the ceiling into a soup tureen, a nanny who could only waddle slowly because of her feet being bound in infancy, a butler who could work accounts with his abacus faster than Robin could with pencil and paper, Mary smearing wet ashes in her hair so her blond curls would not set her apart from other children. Mary spoke Chinese as easily as English until age five, when she started school in English after a furlough year in England and America. The only word of Chinese she retained into adulthood was “jiaozi,” or potsticker dumpling. Her Chinese name Meili remained a term of endearment throughout her life, and she was a favorite customer of Little Rock’s Chinese restaurants.
Mary’s family lived in Jinan as neutral citizens under Japanese occupation. They escaped internment during the war only because they were in the United States when Pearl Harbor was attacked – a day after Robin died of complications following a surgery for tuberculosis. Widowed and unable to return to her home in China, Alice found work as a teacher and dormitory matron at Northfield School for Girls in Massachusetts, where Mary spent the rest of her childhood. As a widowed mother with two children, Alice was paid much less than teachers who were single men.
Mary studied art and child development at Oberlin College, where she met seminary student Richard “Dick” Frothingham on a blind date. Dick was the love of her life, and they enjoyed 67 years together before his death in 2019. Dick’s career path from pastor to army chaplain to college professor took the couple from Ohio to Texas to New York to Nebraska, before they settled in Little Rock in 1962 with their three sons, Richard, Thomas and Edward.
While raising three rambunctious boys, Mary worked part-time as an art teacher at Easter Seals, initially working with disabled children, later with developmentally delayed adults. Mary set aside little time for making art herself, but her family treasures the oils, watercolors, stained glass and pottery she created.
After retiring from Easter Seals, Mary devoted herself to volunteering, helping others, and to what she came to view as her true calling--prayer and worship. Her faith encompassed both a devotion to the Bible and a belief that she had experienced multiple previous lives. In 2020, she published the first of a planned seven books about her past lives, “The Bridge Made of Mayfly Wings”.
Despite her age, Mary used her computer to write her books, keep up with her friends and relatives, and attend church and prayer meetings via Zoom during the pandemic. She remained sharp, living independently and driving (much to her sons’ dismay) until the very end of her life.
Mary was preceded in death by her parents, her husband and her older sister Helen Kuhns. She is survived by her sons Rich (Margaret) of Durham, North Carolina; Tom (Laura Phillips) of Roland, Arkansas; and Eddie (Lisa) of Corvallis, Oregon; as well as her much-loved grandchildren Rick (Megan) of Durham; Cameron Kruis (Neal) of Lafayette, Colorado; Sunny (Zarak Khan) of Durham; Emma of San Carlos, California; and Julia of Northampton, Massachusetts; as well as her adored great-grandchildren Henk and Hazel Kruis of Lafayette, Colorado and Charlotte of Durham.
We are grateful to the staff at Baptist Medical Center for excellent care at the end of her life. One of Mary’s many volunteer activities was sewing whimsical pillowcases for children sheltered by local churches. Memorial gifts may be made to Family Promise of Pulaski County https://www.familypromisepc.org. The family is planning a celebration of Mary’s life in the spring of 2022.
Throughout her life, Mary displayed boundless love and an extraordinary ability to see the best in every person she met. Many benefitted from her unlimited empathy and acceptance, and we are comforted that she left the world a much better place than she found it. Arrangements are under the direction of RuebelFuneralHome.com