Frances Tausche, 94, immunology researcher
November 3, 2022
Frances Nadine Gamble Tausche, 94, of West Hartford, Conn., a retired medical researcher and a part-time resident on Pawleys Island, died Oct. 9. She was 94.
She was born Oct. 1, 1928, in Kingstree, the daughter of Beulah and Hugh Gamble. She graduated from Kingstree High School in 1946 and majored in chemistry at Winthrop University, graduating in 1949. She earned a master’s degree in zoology at Indiana University in 1951. While at Indiana, she spent two summers at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, conducting biomedical research, which built what became her life-long career of work with laboratory animals to study and find solutions for human disease. After Indiana, she worked as a biologist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, where she investigated the effects of radiation and certain means for radiation to help in human health care.
She met her future husband, Paul Everett Tausche, in the Oak Ridge Chorus and they married in November 1953. Paul worked at the Oak Ridge Y-12 National Security Complex overseeing the production of fission nuclear fuel and in the development of the fusion reaction processes which was central to the thermonuclear H-bomb technology.
The couple moved to Trumbull, Conn., in 1957 and to West Hartford in 1959, following Mr. Tausche’s long career with General Electric. They lived in the same house for over 60 years. Mr. Tausche died in 2020. Mrs. Tausche moved to Atlanta in March.
Mrs. Tausche worked for 25 years as a research assistant in the Department of Pathology at the UCONN Health Center in Farmington, Conn., where she continued supporting immunology research, coauthoring research papers and mentoring an extensive group of graduate students.
After retiring from full-time work in 1991, Mr. and Mrs. Tausche spent many months each year at Pawleys Island and continued to travel extensively, often taking appreciative family members along on vacation tours. Frances voraciously filled her life with her love of family, friends, singing, piano, music, reading, bird watching, gardening and volunteering in her community.
She is survived by her children, Paula Babiss (Lee) and James Tausche (Jane); her grandchildren, Lindsay Babiss Bornheimer (Will), Emily Babiss (Seán O’Mahony) and Hannah Babiss, Charlotte and Andrea Tausche; and her great-grandchildren, Emma, Taylor and Harper Bornheimer.
A memorial service will be held at a later date in West Hartford. Condolences may be sent to at dignitymemorial.com.
