Francis Cline

Francis Cline

September – January 2025

After a stroke caused by a brain bleed, Francis died peacefully on January 30, 2025. His family memorialized him with a small church service and then scattered his ashes at the family cabin in Mentone, AL.

His family includes his wife of 60 years, Elizabeth, his son Michael, and his daughter MariBeth. Michael has an adult son, Justin. Michael’s fiance is Becky, who has a son Jackson. MariBeth’s husband is Mike who has two adult children – Elijah and Emily. He has two younger siblings – Wayne and Sherry. His sister-in-law is Penney. He has one niece and two nephews – Renee, Hunter, and Daniel. He also has a God daughter Devan.

His father, Glenn, died at the age of 83 and his mother Emily died at the age of 94. Both from Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.

He was born in North Carolina and was an avid Wolfpack fan after getting his Aerospace Engineering degree from North Carolina State. Right after graduation, he and Elizabeth honeymooned in Huntsville due to a job interview with Boeing. He worked for Boeing and helped build the Saturn V rocket. He left Boeing and worked for the Missile and Space Intelligence Center (MSIC) on Redstone Arsenal. After he retired from MSIC, he worked a couple of government contracting jobs and then finally retired from working for good. He enjoyed several volunteer jobs at Manna House and A New Leash on Life. He also proudly donated blood to the Red Cross for many years.

Francis enjoyed spending time at the family cabin, never passed up a chance to eat out with family or friends, watching football, reading a history book, walking the family cat – Wrigley, or feeding cookies to the family’s donkeys – Bailey and Elvis. He will be missed but leaves many good memories of special times spent with his family and friends.