Frances Ellen (Neff) Costa, 97, Wilmington, Del., formerly of Rochester, passed away Tuesday. She was born on Nov. 22, 1916, in Kewanna, the daughter of Dean and Esther Brooker Neff. She graduated at the top of her class from Rochester High School in 1934. After graduation, she worked at the county clerk's office in Rochester. In 1937 she was married to Lester Joseph Lemon, and in 1941 they moved to Los Angeles. At that time, Frances went to work at Douglas Aircraft and experienced the anxieties of wartime Los Angeles with air raid drills and nighttime blackouts. For several years, Frances worked as an executive secretary for George Pal Productions and Paramount Studios. She and her husband were divorced near the end of the war years. In January of 1947 Frances moved to Washington, D.C. where she worked in the office of U.S. Sen. Homer Capehart of Indiana. In April of that year she was offered an excellent position as executive secretary to the vice-president of public affairs for Shell Oil Co. in New York City. That was the start of a career that gave Frances much satisfaction for many years until her retirement. In New York she met Michael Costa and they were married on June 8, 1953, in Maryland. After the honeymoon they moved to Jamaica, Long Island, N.Y. Unfortunately, Mike passed away at only 45 years of age on Dec. 31, 1959. In June of 1965 Frances requested transfer with Shell Oil Company to their Chicago office so that she might be closer to her parents in Rochester. She retired from Shell in the 1970s and lived some very happy retirement years in Rochester. After the deaths of both parents Frances moved to Kennett Square, Pa. to be closer to her sister, Anna Winslow. In 2004 she moved to Wilmington, Del. at the same time that her sister and family moved to Wilmington. Frances was baptized into the Baptist Church in Rochester when she was 12 and was a lifelong Baptist. She was very active in the Baptist Church in Kennett Square. She was also active in the Kennett Senior Center, taking on large responsibilities for helping to manage the Kennett Senior Bookstore. Frances is survived by her sister, Anna Neff Winslow; nephew Dean Winslow and his children, Lindley, Mary and Samuel; nephew Richard Winslow and his wife Annette; niece Christiane Winslow and her partner Kathleen Clark; and niece Alexandra McFeely and husband Eugene, and their children Daniel, Owen and Ryan. Frances will be interred with her parents in IOOF Cemetery, 620 W. 3rd St., Rochester, at 11 a.m. Saturday