Sister Frances Gopsill | Retired librarian, 78

Sister Frances Gopsill, 78, of Rosemont, a retired librarian, died of apparent heart failure Friday at Bryn Mawr Hospital.

For 18 years, Sister Frances was a librarian at Rosemont College. She helped students locate research materials and developed the library's reference-room collection. After retiring last year, she continued to volunteer at the library once a week, assisting students. She also was known by her religious name, Mother Mary Job.

Previously, Sister Frances had taught at St. Leonard's Academy and at St. James School in Philadelphia. She also had been an educator and librarian at schools in New York and Illinois.

A native of Fairfield, Conn., Sister Frances worked in Manhattan for nine years. When she realized that she might have a vocation to the religious life, said a friend, Sister Mary Frances Nevis, a Jesuit priest suggested she become a Sister of the Holy Child. She entered the Holy Child Convent in Rosemont in 1955. She earned a bachelor's degree from Villanova University and a master's degree in library science from Dominican University in River Forest, Ill.

A talented singer, Sister Frances was a member of the choir at Daylesford Abbey and planned to perform the

Messiah

this week with the Wayne Coterie, a group of musicians and singers. She was an organic gardener before the practice was in vogue, Sister Mary Frances Nevis said, and loved to bake.

Sister Frances is survived by sisters, Irene Iwanecki and Barbara Leson; and nieces and nephews.

A Funeral Mass will be said at 11 a.m. today at New Sharon Chapel, 1314 Montgomery Ave., Rosemont. Friends may call at 10 a.m. Burial will be in Calvary Cemetery, West Conshohocken.