LV Christian radio founder French dies

Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2005 | 8:33 a.m.

When Ann French and her husband, Jack, founded Southern Nevada's first contemporary Christian radio station, KILA-FM, in 1972, they did not view Las Vegas as Sin City.

Instead, they saw the town as a place "to lift up Jesus Christ 24 hours a day" on what was then Las Vegas' only 100,000-watt FM station, said Jack French, an ordained minister and president and general manager of the station.

"She did everything from accounting to picking out inspirational books (for on-air review)," he said. "She was the backbone of the station."

Ann M. French, who became familiar to longtime listeners as "my beloved Ann" from Jack French's "Something to Think About" segments, died Wednesday at a local hospital following a lengthy illness. She was 77.

A memorial service for the Las Vegas resident of 34 years is pending. Desert Memorial Cremation and Burial Society is handling the arrangements.

Ann French also was a founder of Women's Aglow, a ministry of fellowship. She taught Sunday school and conducted women's Bible study for that organization.

Born Ann Sellers on Nov. 26, 1927, in Narrows, Ky., she was the sixth of seven children of Elmer Sellers, who worked in the trucking industry, and the former Florence Dietiker.

The family moved to St. Louis when Ann was young. There, she and Jack became sweethearts while attending Kirkwood High School. At the time, he was a 17-year-old, part-time disc jockey.

The couple graduated from high school in 1946 and married a year later. They began working in Christian radio in 1959.

The Frenches came to Las Vegas in 1971 to start KILA for the nonprofit Faith Communications Corp., which still holds the license for the station that several weeks ago changed its call letters to KSOS -- Sounds of the Spirit.

"We always felt we were sent to Las Vegas to -- like the disciples -- spread the word of our lord," Jack French said. "We found that Las Vegas in many ways is like many other cities."

The station does not sell advertising, but rather operates solely on donations -- an area that Ann French long oversaw.

She also was a driving force behind the success of "The Reading Room," a segment hosted by her daughter Chris Staley, the station's longtime programming director.

The station at 2201 S. Sixth Street celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1997, the year Ann and Jack French were inducted into the Nevada Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame.

In addition to her husband and daughter, she is survived by a son, Jack French of Boulder Creek, Calif.; two other daughters, Deborah Barton of Palmdale, Calif., and Charmagne Balean of Las Vegas; a sister, Dorothy Rhoads of St. Louis; eight grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by a daughter, Elizabeth Stanton.