Barbara de Frondeville

Barbara de Frondeville passed away peacefully at home on September 2, 2025, after spending a joyous final month with extended family at her home in Rye, New York.

Born to Robert and Florence Jackson Fuller in Chico, CA on Jan.6, 1937, she spent the first 17 years of her life moving from one naval base to another with her family, which now included her brother Richard, ending up in Honolulu, Hawaii, where she graduated from high school in 1954. In her senior year she was co-editor of the school newspaper, head sponsor of the ROTC battalion, valedictorian of her class, and the governor of Hawaii on Student Government Day.

She graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from UC Berkeley, where she met her French husband, Bertrand, the future marquis de Frondeville, who was sent to Cal for a year by the French navy to get a master’s degree in nuclear engineering. Deciding to marry him at the time involved “burning all her bridges behind her”, but 65 years of marriage later she regretted nothing about her choice.

They were married in the Invalides Cathedral in Paris in 1960, then moved to a naval base on a small island in the Loire River, in Brittany where they lived for 6 years, and had the first two of their three sons, Tristan and Eric.

Then they spent 6 years in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA, where their third son Alex was born, before moving to Rye, NY on Long Island Sound, which was their home for the last 52 years.

At age 40, in 1977, she began teaching French in Bronxville High, where she remained for a 25 year career. While teaching full time, with her three sons still at home, she returned to college for a Masters degree in French literature at Fordham University

Her husband and three sons, as well as her seven grandchildren Christel, Nicolas, Elena, Carly, Sasha, Catherine and Christian, called her Rainbow because of her passionate love of bright colors, and her unique way of illuminating the hearts and minds of people around her.

She was addicted to learning, determined to know everything before she died, and loved to dance, cook, read, and play games involving words and decks of cards, but most of all she liked to draw people out with her empathetic listening skills.

As she shared some time ago, “If there is a ceremony, I would of course hope that the attendees would attire themselves in riotous color, to celebrate my living rather than regret my passing.” There is no date yet on a planned celebration.