Fran Lemos, ‘the moral compass of American Canyon,’ dies at 96
Lemos was due to receive a lifetime achievement award on Saturday
Fran Lemos attended every American Canyon City Council meeting for years, witnessing the growth of the community she had called home since the late 1940s.
Considered by many the matriarch and the unofficial historian of American Canyon, Lemos applauded ribbon cuttings, community celebrations and other happenings. She served as a mentor and a guide to countless newcomers to American Canyon.
Lemos died Monday at home of natural causes. She was 96.
Mayor Pierre Washington asked for a moment of silence in Lemos’ honor at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. American Canyon’s flags were lowered to half-mast Monday and Tuesday in her memory.
“Fran was truly an icon to our community,” Washington said. “Her contributions, her spirit and her deep love for the city helped shape who we are today.”
Washington extended his condolences to Lemos’ family and friends. Lemos, a widow, had four children. She was also a grandmother and a great-grandmother.
Her daughter, Rebecca Lemos of Santa Cruz, sat in her mother’s reserved seat in the City Council chambers, next to a brother, Randy Lemos, of Boulder City, Nev., and longtime family friend, Beth Marcus. Rebecca Lemos came to the speaker podium to thank the community and visitors who have reached out to the family recently.
“She loved the city,” Rebecca Lemos said of her mom. “Her heart will always be with American Canyon.”
A rosary is scheduled for 6 p.m. on April 27 at Twin Chapels Funeral Home on Tennessee Street in Vallejo, Rebecca Lemos said. Funeral services will be private.
A celebration of life is set for July 25 at the Trinchero Building at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Napa Valley at American Canyon on Benton Way. “She loved the Boys and Girls Club,” Rebecca Lemos said.
That’s what her mother wanted, Rebecca Lemos said, a rosary, a private funeral and a big celebration of life.
“She had a wonderful, big life to celebrate,” Rebecca Lemos said.
Fran Lemos, who was born and raised in Vallejo, died in the house her late husband, father and relatives built after their November 1947 wedding. The land had been a wedding gift, Lemos said in an interview for the American Canyon Community and Parks Foundation, an organization she strongly supported as a founding board member.
Her husband’s family had lived since 1906 in Napa Junction, as American Canyon was then known.
Lemos went home last week after being hospitalized. A steady stream of visitors stopped by her house on Friday and over the weekend.
“Fran made everyone feel special,” said Cori Badertscher, a realtor and longtime friend, who came to visit Lemos.
Lemos was expected to receive the city’s Gateway Lifetime Achievement Award at Saturday’s annual volunteer appreciation dinner. The Gateway Awards, American canyon’s highest recognition for community service, are presented during the annual event. Awardees receive the award only once and are called “Gators.” Lemos was a Gator.
Vice Mayor Mark Joseph, a former city manager and himself a Gator, came to see Lemos on Friday with eight Gateway Award winners. They brought cards, flowers and a signed proclamation of their own to honor Lemos.
Lemos loved American Canyon and was an advocate for the city, Joseph said.
Beth Marcus knew Lemos for more than four decades.
“You couldn’t have a prouder person of American Canyon than Fran,” said Marcus, who started driving Lemos to City Council meetings after Lemos no longer could drive. “She was so proud of the city and everything that it stood for.”
Lemos began attending public meetings after retiring in the late 1980s as an office manager at an auto body part business in Vallejo. She never ran for City Council although she was elected in November 1990 to the board of directors of the American Canyon Fire Protection District. She served through 1992, the year the city was incorporated. For years, Lemos also volunteered at a thrift shop.
John Tuteur, Napa County’s assessor-recorder-county clerk, is also a former Napa County supervisor. Tuteur was elected supervisor in 1972 in the 5th district, which included south Napa County and the American Canyon area. He served eight years.
“Fran was an important part of the community,” Tuteur said. Lemos “paid close attention to the activities of the local agencies and was a great promoter of incorporation back in 1992,” Tuteur said.
In 2023, U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, named Lemos Woman of the Year.
“She loved the city,” said Joan Bennett, a former councilwoman who met Lemos before the city’s 1992 incorporation. “She wanted the best for the city and everybody who lives here.”
Lemos strongly supported the city’s incorporation, property rights and the development of American Canyon.
She was not shy about voicing her opinion. Occasionally, she would also defend her native Vallejo at public meetings.
“She would go to City Council meetings, and if she was supporting something she’d say so; if she was not supporting something, she’d say so,” said Bennett, a member of the very first City Council.
Brenda Knight met Lemos after she moved in 2003 from Oakland to American Canyon in 2003 with her husband, the late Harvey Knight Jr. and mother, Virginia Johnson.
Knight, a motivational speaker and caregiver, went on to serve seven years as a Napa Valley College trustee and became involved in the community, creating such events as Jazz in the Park. Lemos always attended the event, Knight said. Her 92-year-old mother, Virginia Johson, and Fran Lemos became friends.
“Fran took me in and taught me all about American Canyon,” Knight said. “Fran Lemos was a master class.”
Lemos would give her the background on nonprofit organizations Knight was working with, along with plenty of support for her projects. Lemos supported diversity, Knight said.
“I could always go and talk to her if I was having a problem,” Knight said. “I grew to just really love her as a person.”
Vincent “Buzz” Butler, partner at Lake Street Ventures, the company that developed Napa Junction, first met Lemos in the late 1980s when he worked for Pacific Union Company on the development of the Napa Valley Gateway Park near the Napa County Airport.
Lemos would bring cookies to his office every month and say hello, Butler recalled.
American Canyon supplies water to the airport area. The water issue was “a little contentious” and Lemos wanted to make sure everyone got along, Butler said.
Fran was the “moral compass,” Butler said. “Fran loved her city,” he said. “She loved all the people. She welcomed all.”
Years later, she supported Lake Street Ventures’ Napa Junction project, along with other developments such as Watson Ranch. The mixed-use Napa Junction project has generated property, sales and hotel tax revenues over the past two decades.
Lemos did not like out-of-town residents telling her how she should live, Butler said. Still, Lemos had an innate ability to connect with people, Butler and others said.
“We all felt we had a very special relationship,” Butler said. “She lived her faith … just kind, kind to the end.”
