Colorful Vegas character Wright dies at 101

Thursday, April 6, 2006 | 6:48 a.m.

When Frances Wright worked as a manager at Bains women's clothing store on the Strip in the 1960s, she would change the labels on large dresses to smaller sizes for customers such as full-figured celebrities Totie Fields and Lanie Kazan.

"My mother would say to them, 'Honey, you look fabulous - did you lose weight?' " longtime Southern Nevada resident Mary Fox said. "It really boosted their confidence to think they could fit into smaller-sized clothes.

"My mother was a broad with a lot of moxie, and she was proud of it. She used to say, 'What anyone thinks or says about me is none of my business.' "

Wright, a 5-foot-3, blond spitfire, thought of herself as a Vegas-kind-of-gal - tough and brassy. In her 50s, she paraded around the Flamingo and Riviera pools in a tight black swimsuit and often could be found playing roulette at the Desert Inn with a Lucky Strike cigarette dangling from her lips.

She died March 30 at the Del Mar Gardens nursing home in Henderson. She was 101. The cause of death was complications of old age, her family said.

Wright smoked until she was well into her 70s, but credited her longevity to being a good athlete in her youth, maintaining a good diet and taking a shot of bourbon at 4 p.m. every day.

Born Fanny Schneider on Feb. 14, 1905, in Poland, she was the third of four children of Louis and Molly Schneider. Her family came to the United States when she was 6 months old. Her father was a tailor for an upscale men's clothier on Temple Street in Los Angeles.

By the time she was 10, Wright was an aspiring child actress who took the stage name of Fanny Snyder.

She claimed to have had a bit part in the classic and controversial 1915 silent film "The Birth of a Nation" and often told friends that she enjoyed working on the film, which paid 50 cents a day and included a box lunch.

Wright attended Los Angeles Polytechnic High School where she lettered in volleyball, swimming and softball and was captain of those teams. She also was senior class president. Her yearbook listed her as most likely to become the "first woman president of the United States."

After graduating in 1921, Wright became a part of the flapper scene while attending business school. In 1927 she married car salesman David Wright. They were married for 71 years. He died in 1998.

Adept at poker, mah-jongg, canasta and pan, Frances Wright was a longtime regular in Southern California card rooms. From the early 1950s until the late 1990s, she would alternate residences between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

She worked at Bains and Sloats, a women's clothing store, but Wright's real love was hanging around Strip resorts, getting a deep tan at poolside and hobnobbing with celebrities. She was a frequent patron at the Sahara's Casbah Lounge when Louis Prima and the Mary Kaye Trio performed there.

Unconventional to the end, Wright took her doctors' advice last month to start using medical marijuana so she would get the munchies and eat to bulk up her thin frame.

In addition to her daughter, Wright is survived by a son, Ronald Wright of Los Angeles; six grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; and one great-great-granddaughter.

Services will be at 11:30 a.m. April 23 at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where Rudolph Valentino and other film stars are buried.

The family said donations in Wright's memory can be made to Congregation Ner Tamid, 2920 Green Valley Parkway, Henderson, NV 89014.