
Mrs. Fran Chandler, 85, died December 3, 2025, in Shreveport, Louisiana. Services will be held Monday, December 8, 2025, at 12:00 noon at Rose-Neath Funeral Home Chapel, 2500 Southside Dr., Shreveport, Louisiana.
She was born Frances Marie Neal in Urania, Louisiana, on December 28, 1940, to Felder Francis Neal and Elma Marie Ford Neal. She graduated from LaSalle High School and Olla in 1959 and moved to Shreveport shortly after. Fran worked for several years at Southern Bell Telephone Company as a long-distance telephone operator before starting her family. She went to work for Western Electric in 1969, where she retired from there as AT&T/Lucent Technologies in 2000.
Fran was a member of Emanuel Baptist Church. She is a lifetime member of the Telephone Pioneers of America, a member of the VFW Ladies’ Auxiliary, and a member of the American Legion Ladies’ Auxiliary. She was a good wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, and loved her family deeply. She also loved to go fishing with her husband and soulmate, Robert, and she loved connecting with friends on Facebook.
She is preceded in death by her parents, Felder Neal and Marie Dunn; grandparents, Chris and Rosie Neal; one brother, Ford Christopher Neal; and infant daughter, Velma Marie Whiddon.
Her survivors are her husband, Robert C. Chandler, whom she married in 1989; her four children (by her first husband, James B. Whiddon), Sondra Gay (Whiddon) Davis and husband, Richard; Teresa Joy (Whiddon) Cales and husband, David; Kimberly Annette (Whiddon)Jones and husband, Eric; and James Benton Whiddon, Jr, and wife, Stephanie; sister, Mary Lou Etheridge; six grandchildren, Ricky and Amanda Davis; Katie (Cales) Lucas and Lyndsey Cales; Samuel Jones Whiddon; and Lisa Nicole Jones, four stepgrandchildren, Heather and Zackary McLain; Erica Jones and Jana Matt, and 15 great-grandchildren.
Honoring Fran as pallbearers will be Denny Finley, Landon Finley, Hayden Finley, Michael Lee, Zackary McLain, David Romero, and Jeffrey Finley Jr. Serving as honorary pallbearer will be Richard Davis.