Marvin Frank France

Marvin France passed away Sunday, August 20, 2023 at The Homestead of Anoka at the age of 87.

Marvin Frank France was born in Pine City MN on April 10th 1936.  He was the last of 8 children born to Katie and Joseph France of Pine City.  His siblings were Bill, Edward, George, Emil, Art, Lillian and Angeline.

He attended Kindergarten through 12th grade in Pine City and graduated from High School in 1954.  He moved to Minneapolis and attended 1 semester at McCalister College before transferring to the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.  He received a BA degree in Industrial Design.  Towards the end of his college career, he would frequently spend weekends in Pine City and spent many Saturday nights skating at Moulton’s Rollerdrome in Rush City.   On one such occasion he met Ina Flom from Bagley, MN.  They soon fell in love and were married just before he accepted his commission in the United States Air Force. 

After graduating from college and getting married, he entered into service in the United States Air Force as a 2nd Lieutenant from his enrollment in the ROTC program in college.  He went on to serve, just short, a 4-year commission accepting an honorable discharge in the spring of 1965. 

He was stationed on air bases in El Paso Texas and Orlando Florida. Most of his time in the Air Force was spent developing, writing and producing training films.  He also flew to Spain to film training films on how-to drive-in Spain for new enlisted men that were stationed on NATO bases there and in other European countries.  

While stationed in El Paso on Biggs Air Force Base, Marvin and Ina had their first child Elizabeth Ester France who was born January 14, 1962.  In two years, he was transferred to McCoy Air Force Base in Orlando, Florida.  In Orlando they welcomed their second child into the family, Kathryn Marie France born on May 30, 1964. 

Wanting to be closer to family and have his children attend one school throughout their education, he moved his family back to Pine City, MN where they welcomed their 3rd child into the family, Vincent Steven France, born August 29th 1966.  There they bought a house with a barn on the property at 835 8th St. that he converted into a commercial wood working shop.  Once completed he then started his own Custom Cabinet business. 

Over the next 30 years he developed a large customer base.  He ended up designing, building and installing many kitchens, bathrooms and specialty projects for people all over the Pine City area.  He even had several customers from the Twin Cities.  He finally retired sometime in the 1990’s.  He was also a prolific photographer, videographer, and artist.  In retirement, along with spending time with family and playing cards with friends, he built large wind spinner replicas of popular WWII planes and thrashing machine models to scale making the parts from anything he could find.  He had an unmatched skill of ingenuity.  He also loved working and selling fresh local produce and Garlic from his own garden at the Pine City Farmers Market and going for morning coffee at McDonalds with the guys. 

Marvin is survived by his daughters Elizabeth (Mike) Nord of Bremerton, Washington, Kathryn (David) Mckeen of Minneapolis; son Vincent (Jane) France of Omaha, Nebraska; grandchildren Phillip Nord, Jacob (Erica) Nord, Madeline France, Alex France; great-grandson Leo Nord.

He was preceded in death by his parents Joseph and Cathreine France, his siblings and wife Ina France.

Funeral services for Marvin: 2 PM; Saturday, September 16, 2023 at the Pine City Evangelical Free Church – Lighthouse.  A time for family and friends to gather is planned for one hour prior to the service at the church. The interment will take place in Birchwood Cemetery, Pine City.

Funeral arrangements are entrusted to the: Funeral and Cremation Service of Pine City, Swanson Chapel www.FuneralandCremationService.com