Franklin L. Hankins

Franklin Lewis Hankins Sr., passed away on Saturday, July 27, 2019, at Overland Park Place in Overland Park, KS. His faith in the Lord was his comfort and strength for 91 years. Franklin was born at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City and adopted as a newborn by Orville Lewis and Eunice Maude (Forney) Hankins of Ottawa, KS. Franklin was baptized and confirmed at Grace Episcopal Church in Ottawa, where he served as an acolyte and lay-reader. As a boy, Franklin helped his father in the family drugstore and at age 12, he began driving the family auto to deliver medicine. Three days before the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, his father was tragically struck and killed as a passenger in an auto accident. Franklin helped his mother run the drugstore until he graduated from Ottawa High School in 1946 and left home the day after his 18th birthday to serve in the U.S. Navy on Guam. After he was discharged, he attended Ottawa University for one semester where he met his future wife. He transferred to Purdue University in 1948 and joined Sigma Chi Fraternity. Franklin and Mary Elizabeth Casebier were married in Chanute, KS on June 25, 1950. Beginning as newlyweds in West Lafayette, IN, his college studies were interrupted by a second call of duty at the Naval Station in Great Lakes, IL during the Korean War.

In 1952, his son Franklin Jr. was born in Waukegan, IL. After graduating from Purdue in 1953, Franklin was recruited by American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) to work in Cincinnati, OH, where his daughter Elizabeth Ann was born in 1955. The rest of Franklin's 35-year career with AT&T was a series of promotions that involved transfers to Long Island, NY; Charlotte, NC; Allendale, NJ; Western Springs, IL; Omaha, NE; Overland Park, KS; Chatham Township, NJ; and Mission Hills, KS. Franklin and Mary retired in Kansas City. After 56 years of marriage, he lost his beloved Mary to cancer in 2006. He and his second wife, Carol, moved to Overland Park in 2016.

He was a member of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Kansas City and the AT&T Pioneers. Franklin was a faithful volunteer for more than 25 years at the Kansas State School for the Blind and the CHARM Foundation.

He is survived by his son Franklin and his wife Christine of Morris, IL; daughter, Elizabeth Wendorff and her husband John of Overland Park; five grandchildren: Dr. Jessica Hankins Gamauf and her husband Eric of Navarre, FL; Franklin Lewis Hankins III and his wife Gina of Indianapolis, IN; Mary Elizabeth “Molly” Wendorff Scarffe and her husband Brendan of Lee's Summit, MO; Dr. Andrew David Wendorff of Chicago; Bettie Elizabeth “Betsy” Wendorff of Overland Park; and nine great-grandchildren: August, Reese and Wyatt Gamauf; Eva and Dylan Hankins; Austin, Jordan, Mackenzie and Jackson Scarffe.

A memorial service and reception will be held at St. Andrew’s, Wornall and Meyer Blvd., on Thursday, August 15, at 2:30 p.m. A private internment for the family will follow on Friday morning.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a memorial gift to the St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 6401 Wornall Terrace, Kansas City, MO 64113   or to any charity near and dear to your heart.