CARSON, Wash. -- Rosie J. Frank, a nationally honored Nez Perce artisan and former Sweetwater resident, died of cancer Tuesday in Carson. She was 86.
She learned the craft of cornhusk weaving in the late 1940s from her friend Ida Blackeagle, and the art grew into a lifelong passion.
"When I learned it I never laid it down. I kept at it," she said in an interview in 1991.
She was honored that year by the National Endowment for the Arts as one of 16 National Heritage Award recipients. The award recognized her as a master of the folk arts.
In 1998 she received the Governor's Award for Arts for the state of Idaho.
She taught cornhusk weaving for a time at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston and had many private students. Her work has been admired around the United States and the world.
She was born May 6, 1912, to Frank and Martha Samuels Compo at Sweetwater.
She attended school at St. Joseph Mission and Sweetwater and then Lapwai schools. She left school because of poor health in the eighth grade.
She married Austin Corbett in 1934. The marriage ended in divorce.
She married D. Kenneth Frank Nov. 24, 1972.
She was a member of the Nez Perce Tribe and the Lapwai Methodist Church. She also was a member of W.S.C.S. of Lapwai, where she did a lot of quilting.
During World War II she worked at the Portland shipyards. She then returned home to raise cattle and horses.
She worked for a tuberculosis sanitarium in Lapwai for a time and then for the Lapwai schools as a cook, retiring in 1976.
She taught Sunday school for 17 years.
Her husband died in June 1997. She moved to Carson from Sweetwater about a year ago.
In addition to cornhusk weaving, she enjoyed dancing, going to stick games and traveling with her husband.
She also enjoyed her many pet dogs.
She is survived by two daughters, Francine Allen of Sweetwater and Louetta Gardee of Carson; 11 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by one son, Wendell Corbett; three sisters, Annie, Rachel and Louise; two brothers, Titus and Daniel Compo; and a grandson.
A memorial service will be held at 7 p.m. today at the Lapwai Methodist Church.
A funeral is planned for 10 a.m. Saturday, also at the church. Burial will follow at Jonah Cemetery at Sweetwater.
