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FRANCES GORDON HELLER
Knight of Baha’u’llah 1909—1990
Born in Avoyelles Parish in Louisiana, U.S.A., on 16 December 1909 and christened Frances Verna Gordon in the Catholic church, Frances was the eldest of eight children~six girls and two boys. Her father, Frank Gordon, was a self—taught civil engineer, related to the well-known Gallo family of Italy. He worked for the Texas and Pacific Railroad, travelling around Louisiana building levees, railroads, and bridges. Her mother, Elma Brulte Gordon, was French Acadian, related to the Couvillions and the Lady Evangeline, about Whom Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote his famous narrative poem by the same name. Frances grew up exploring the bayous with her cousins and two brothers, planning to explore the rest of the world when she was old enough.
Frances was raised a devout Catholic. She constantly studied the Bible as a youth, and her keen intellect saw many discrepancies between the teachings of Christ and the practices of the priests and the Church. At 16 years old, she vowed to God and to herself that she would search for the truth until she found it, and she set out on a life-long study and quest for knowledge.
Frances investigated every religious organization she could find, from J ehovah’s
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Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and Seventh Day Adventists to Yogis, Rosicrucians, and Theosophists. She found truth in all of them. Still, she was not completely satisfied with any of them.
She graduated from high school and business college in Louisiana, and found a job as a medical secretary for the US. Army. She was transferred to Chicago, where she met and married her beloved husband, Sydney Heller, in 1948.
In 1949, just before they moved to San Francisco to open a music store, Frances went to Wilmette to visit friends. They were not home, so she decided to find out what mystery lay in the Bahá’í House of Worship.
F oundation Ha11, in the basement of the Bahá’í House of Worship, held a tiny bookstore. Frances spoke With the person in charge, and then proceeded to buy two of every book. As the storekeeper tallied the books, he remarked that many people had bought one of everything, but no one had ever bought two of everything. Could she please explain? Frances said, “Certainly! If this is as good as it sounds, then someone else needs to know about this.” Frances filled one of her suitcases with Bahá’í books and set out for San Francisco.
Frances attended her first Bahá’í meeting at Mamie Seto’s house in San Francisco. She met Lucy Marshall, who became her first Bahá’í teacher and great friend, but she did not enrol in the Faith. Frances was in turmoil because of her Catholic upbringing. If this was the truth, why were the Catholics not responding to Baha’u’llah’s Message? Frances was daring and courageous, fearless in searching for the truth, and she always went to the source When investigating anything. She decided to ask for an audience With the Pope.
She planned to ask the Pope three questions: “Do you know about Baha’u’llah and His claims? If so, do you believe they are the truth? If not, Why not, and if so, why are you not a Bahá’í?” In the fall of 1951, she received an audience with Pope Pius XII.
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She travelled to Rome and was being robed and prepared to meet the Pope to ask her questions when, suddenly, she knew the answers. She rushed out of the preparation room into St. Peter’s Cathedral and there, under the dome, declared her belief in Bahá’u’lláh.
Frances returned to San Francisco, enrolled in the Faith, and in 1953 eagerly received plans for the Guardian’s Ten Year Crusade. She felt compelled to respond to the call for pioneers, no matter what.
Frances went to the Asian Intercontinental Teaching Conference in New Delhi, India, from 7 to 15 October 1953. On the way to the conference, she obtained one Visa for the Gilbert Islands, and one for Macau. At that time it was extremely difficult for Americans to obtain Visas to Macau because of the Portuguese Catholic influence so, since Frances had that Visa, she went directly there and was designated as a Knight of Baha’u’llah.
She arrived 20 October 1953 and settled into a large one-room apartment. She took classes in dance and Chinese brush painting, and began to teach English to children.
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Frances taught the Faith to and confirmed the first Chinese woman in Macau, Mary Shia, through teaching Mary’s son English. She also taught the first Portuguese Bahá’í in Macau, Manual Ferreira, by teaching him English through study of the book, Bahd ’u ’Zldh and the New Era.
Other pioneers soon came to Macau: Carl and Loretta Scherer, who also became Knights of Bahá’u’lláh, and then Mr. and Mrs. Iflmat’u’lláh ‘Azizi. After a year the Guardian wrote Frances a letter saying, “You may leave your post at any time. There are too many Bahá’ís in Macau.” She left for the United States on 4 November 1954.
Frances arrived in the United States on 4 December 1954 and stayed long enough to obtain a visa for a new pioneering goal in Puebla, Mexico, where she arrived in March of 1955 and directed her efforts towards meeting and teaching the Mexican Indians. Frances taught the Faith by making friends with the native people and then finding ways to serve them. They in turn were attracted to the Faith by her selfless service.
In the spring of 1956, Frances attended a teaching conference for Central America and Mexico, in Mexico. A message from Shoghi Effendi was received; he wanted a pioneer to go to the Gilbert Islands to replace the original pioneers, Elena and Roy Ferm'e. In October 1956, she returned to the United States to obtain a new Visa for the Gilbert Islands. The only way to get one was to go to Australia or Fiji and apply there.
Frances arrived in Suva, Fiji, in late 1956. She taught English and travelled by long motor boats (F rances called them “put-puts”) and outrigger canoes to Visit different islands, made friends with the native peoples and taught them the Faith. When Visitors arrived in the Villages, they would have big parties in the long-houses, and cook, sing, and dance all night. Frances and other pioneers often spent the night in these long houses on their teaching trips.
One day Frances met three Fijian teenage girls, and spoke to them about the Faith. One
THE BAHA’I WORLD
was named Tinai, whose uncle later became the King of Fiji. Frances brought Tinai to the Bahá’í Centre and introduced her to the other Bahá’í teachers there, including Donald Hancock from New Zealand. Tinai and Donald eventually married, raised a family, and Tinai Hancock became a member of the Continental Board of Counsellors in the Pacific.
In the spring of 1957, a freighter left Fiji with Frances aboard, bound for Abaiang in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, later named Kiribati and Tuvalu, respectively. She loved the native peoples and lived in a thatched hut close to their Village, ate their food, gave them what medical care she could, and taught them English and the Bahá’í Faith. She was able to arrange with the government for a 99—year lease for two pieces of land for Bahá’í centres in the Gilbert Islands, one in Abaiang, one in Beiginibou.
Frances was joined by Mabel Snyder in September 1957. In November, Frances went to the island of Tarawa where she helped to establish the first Local Spiritual Assembly. Her health gradually deteriorated because of the weather and food, until a local doctor ordered immediate leave from the Colony for complete rest and medical care. She departed in the summer of 1958, bound for Hawaii and the United States.
Frances recuperated on the ocean liner and stayed in Hawaii for a few months, teaching the Faith. She spent as much time as possible with the Hand of the Cause of God Agnes Alexander during this period. In January 1960, she went to San Rafael, California, where she helped to form the first Local Spiritual Assembly in 1961.
Sydney and Frances adopted their KoreanAmerican daughter, J ennifer Rhea Heller, in 1960, when Jennifer was siX-and-a-half years old. Frances and Jennifer went to London in the fall of 1962, where Frances helped to prepare for the first Bahá’í World Congress, held in London at the Royal Albeit Hall, from 28 April to 2 May, 1963. From London, Frances and Jennifer went on
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pilgrimage and dined with Amatu’l—Baha Rúḥíyyih Khánum, and then they made a teaching trip through Norway and Scotland.
They returned to the United States so that J ennifer could continue her education, and spent summers on teaching/consolidation hips: to the Mexican villages of San Francisco and Chilula near Puebla; to Chichicastenango; to the American southwest Indian reservations; and to the Gilbert Islands.
Frances and Sydney moved to Novato, California, in 1978, and in 1989 they moved to Gretna, Louisiana, Where Frances passed away on 6 November 1990.
Frances had a strong intuition and spiritual connection with people. Once she was walking past a used bookstore, and on a whim decided to enter. Inside she found an original translation of the Qur’án by Robert Sale. It was very rare, but Frances said ‘this is not for me’. She decided that Shoghi Effendi should have this copy, so she mailed it to the Holy Land with no return address. Later, a friend returned from pilgrimage and mentioned that Shoghi Effendi had told the pilgrims that he had always wanted a copy of Robert Sale’s original translation of the Qur’án and had just received one anonymously. It had pleased him tremendously, as her life of pioneering and service must have pleased him.
Frances never wanted recognition for any of her services, but almost everyone who was ever close to her received some valuable assistance from her at a critical juncture in their lives. She taught the Faith unceasingly, and was a perpetual student, continuously taking classes in languages, art, dance, and cultures. She was also a scholar of the Faith, and had an unerring knowledge of its history, as well as its spiritual and social teachings. She read all of the published works of the Central Figures every year for more than 20 years.
Frances Heller is remembered by those who knew her as an independent woman with great courage and a quick, deep sense of justice, compassionate toward other people’s
suffering and ready to help in whatever way she could. She had an encompassing feeling of family and was a two friend. Above all, she was steadfastly devoted to Baha’u’llah, to spreading His Message and to serving His Faith to the end of her life.
J OY WIECZOREK
