Frances Yerxa Hamling
A middle-aged white woman with hair in a bouffant style
Hamling, from a 1970 newspaper
BornSeptember 23, 1917
Onondaga, Michigan, US
DiedMarch 3, 2019
Caldwell, Idaho US (buried in hometown)
Occupation(s)Writer, editor
Spouses
Children6

Frances Ferris Yerxa Hamling (September 23, 1917 – March 3, 2019), also known as Frances Deegan, was an American science fiction writer and editor.

Early life

Frances Ferris was born in Onondaga, Michigan, the daughter of Harry Longley Ferris and Ora M. Sherd Ferris.[1] She graduated from high school in 1935.[2]

Career

Frances Yerxa wrote essays and science fiction, under various bylines. She also assisted her second husband in editing pulp magazines. She was managing editor of the magazines Imagination and Imaginative Tales from 1953 to 1958,[3][4] and executive editor of Rogue, a men's magazine. As an officer of Greenleaf Publishing, she was a co-defendant with her husband in 1965, when the company was charged with copyright infringement.[5] In 1976, her ex-husband Hamling served several months in prison for publishing obscene works.[6]

Stories by Deegan/Yerxa include "The Martian and the Milkmaid" (Fantastic Adventures 1944), "The Radiant Rock" (Amazing Stories 1945), "Everybody Wants My Money" (Mammoth Detective 1946),[7] "Little Drops of Water" (Amazing Stories 1946), "The Third Bolt" (Amazing Stories 1947), "Negative Problem" (Amazing Stories 1947), "One More Spring" (Amazing Stories 1947), "Bonita Fleet" (Mammoth Adventure 1947), "Valley of the Big Smoke" (Mammoth Adventure 1947), "Crazy Cat" (Mammoth Adventure 1947), "I Wake Up Dreaming" (Fantastic Adventures 1948), "Freddie Funk's Flippant Fairies" (Fantastic Adventures 1948), "The Dancing Dutchman" (Mammoth Western, 1948),[8] "This Curse for You" (Amazing Stories 1951), "Who Sleeps with Angels" (Fantastic Adventures 1951). Her essays for science fiction publications were on various topics, from comets and telescopes to "ancient barbering customs", Cambodian dance, and Atlantis. She chaired the auction and registration committees at the tenth World Science Fiction Convention, known as Chicon II, in 1952.[9]

In 1964, Frances Hamling and her husband bought a fully-furnished Arthur Elrod house in Palm Springs, California, but promised the former owner that they would not change it in any way. Rugs, appliances, even ashtrays and a candy dish were left in place for years;[10] the house is still considered "an incredible time capsule" of mid-century modern decor.[11]

Personal life

Frances Ferris married twice; her first husband was writer Leroy Yerxa; they married in the 1935[1] and had four children together before Leroy died in 1946. She remarried in 1948, to magazine editor William Lawrence Hamling. She had two more children with Hamling; they divorced in 1967, but continued to live together for some time after that.[2][12] She was active in Palm Springs society,[13][14] including the League of Women Voters.[15] She also lived in Nampa, Idaho in her later years.[16] She died in 2019, in Caldwell, Idaho at the age of 101.[17]

References

  1. 1 2 "Ferris-Yerxa Vows Said at Farm Home". Lansing State Journal. 1935-12-16. p. 13. Retrieved 2022-09-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. 1 2 Toronto, Richard (2013-04-25). War over Lemuria: Richard Shaver, Ray Palmer and the Strangest Chapter of 1940s Science Fiction. McFarland. pp. 54–58, 177–178, 241. ISBN 978-0-7864-7307-6.
  3. ↑ "Leroy Yerxa" SFE: The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (August 12, 2018).
  4. ↑ Davin, Eric Leif (2006). Partners in Wonder: Women and the Birth of Science Fiction, 1926-1965. Lexington Books. pp. 132–133. ISBN 978-0-7391-1267-0.
  5. ↑ "Grove Press, Inc. v. Greenleaf Publishing Company, 247 F. Supp. 518 (E.D.N.Y. 1965)". Justia Law. Retrieved 2022-09-15.
  6. ↑ "Publisher, Editor, Heading for Jail". The New York Times. 1976-01-04. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-09-15.
  7. ↑ Deegan, Frances M. (July 1946). "Everybody Wants my Money". Mammoth Detective. 5 (4): 80–97 – via Internet Archive.
  8. ↑ Deegan, Frances M. (November 1948). "The Dancing Dutchman". Mammoth Western. 4 (11): 18–29 – via Internet Archive.
  9. ↑ Worldcon (1952). Chicon II.
  10. ↑ McKenna, Joan (2018-12-31). "Arthur Elrod Escape House Exactly as He Left it in 1964". Palm Springs Life. Retrieved 2022-09-15.
  11. ↑ Cygelman, Adele (2019-02-12). Arthur Elrod: Desert Modern Design. Gibbs Smith. ISBN 978-1-4236-4879-6.
  12. ↑ "Admit One Or More Hungry Guests' It Read". The Desert Sun. 1971-06-21. p. 6. Retrieved 2022-09-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ "DH Auxiliary Names Officers and Award Winners". The Desert Sun. 1970-06-01. p. 8. Retrieved 2022-09-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ "Hamlings to Sponsor Sun Gala". The Desert Sun. 1971-01-21. p. 6. Retrieved 2022-09-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ "League of Women Voters Holds Organizational Meet". Desert Sun. January 21, 1967. p. 8. Retrieved September 15, 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  16. ↑ "Obituary for Frances Hamling (Aged 101)". The Idaho Statesman. 2019-03-05. pp. C5. Retrieved 2022-09-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ "Frances Ferris-Yerxa-Hamling Obituary". Vickers Funeral Homes. Retrieved 2022-09-15.
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