Frances Elizabeth Alflen

FRANCES E. ALFLEN

Artist Fran Alflen-Diodato, 83, passed peacefully in the early morning hours of August 26, 2024, in Salida after a long struggle with heart disease.

She was born June 2, 1941, at home in Lincoln Park MI, into the large Catholic family of Joseph and Larena Alflen. After Sacred Heart High School, she pursued an RN from a nursing school in Detroit, MI and later a BS in nursing from CU in Boulder, CO. She did RN work in Denver and even ran a nursing station at a rally in Washington DC of Vets Against the Vietnam War with her ex-Green Beret protesting friend. In Salida she worked at the hospital.

Fran liked the 60’s – 70’s antiestablishment themes, evolving from the structured work life of hospital nursing into a peace and love, free spirit artist of ceramics, macrame, and woodcuts. An exceptional woodcut was used to print her own Christmas cards that became framed wall art by many who got them. She subscribed to Mother Earth News.

Midlife she met her late husband, artist Eugene Diodato and the two explored deeply into painting and all things simple, natural and spiritual. They did that in a vagabond lifestyle, profusely creating paintings and drawings in NM and CO, settling longest in Howard. Both enjoyed many a day at their peaceful and quiet “special places”. High up Howard Creek was one. Fran and Gene fly-fished the Arkansas River. She told her brother they were “totally” mesmerized watching the movie, A River Runs Through It, in Salida and pursued seeing it three more times.

From her large family, Fran is survived by her oldest sister, Madeline Balogh, Dominican Sisters Laurena and Joan Alflen and her youngest brother, Gregory. Also surviving are years of journals and an artistic legacy of paintings and pottery in Salida and elsewhere.

Fran wished her passing to be simple; cremation without a service, scatter her remains back to mother earth in a peaceful and quiet place.

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