Frances Brandreth Kane (1858-1938)

Frances Brandreth Kane (1858-1938). Our First Lady of Civic Affairs. Mrs. Fanny Kane was born into privilege but spent her life helping the less fortunate. She was a “little bit of a woman” with a size-two foot and an enormous heart. Her given name was Frances, but everyone called her Fanny. , One of four girls born to George and Virginia Brandreth, Fanny lived with her family on Ellis Place. George, a lawyer and village president, was the oldest son of patent medicine mogul Benjamin Brandreth. Virginia was a daughter of another leading citizen, General Aaron Ward. A childhood accident left Fanny blind in one eye. , Fanny married John Innes Kane, scion of a wealthy family, and they had two sons and a daughter. They lived in Woodlawn, an estate on North Highland Avenue, but spent time in warmer climes to battle John's tuberculosis. He passed away in 1904, leaving Fanny a widow at age 46. , Over the next 30 years, Mrs. Kane helped establish some of Ossining's most enduring institutions, including the District Nursing Association, where she served as president until her death; the Ossining Woman's Club, where single women could live affordably; and the Ossining Historical Society, where this portrait hangs. As leader of the Civic League, Mrs. Kane and her volunteers cleaned up the streets and took on illegal saloons. She hired the village's first policewoman to patrol the local “disorderly houses” and called for Sing Sing State Prison to have its own train station so convicts wouldn't be walked through the streets. , Fanny Kane passed away at the age of 79 and was buried with her husband. Her sons John and Winslow are buried next to their parents. The Kane mansion has been restored and is now the clubhouse for an apartment complex.