Frances M. (Sperrazza) Scala Platten

Frances (Sperrazza) Scala Platten of Jamaica Plain and Stoughton passed away peacefully on September 10, 2022 surrounded by her family.

Some called her Ma; some called her Grandma; some called her Fran; some called her Auntie Fanny; some called her Fritz.

Frances was born in Boston in 1924 and worked in a textile mill before taking a part-time job at Slocum’s on Centre Street in Jamaica Plain; she then purchased the store with her husband, George A. Scala Sr. (who died in 1970), and renamed it “Fran’s Five-and-Ten” and later “George’s Department Store.”

In the 1980s, she and her second husband, Sumner M. Platten (“Papa Sonny” to us), sold bridal supplies, favors, and assorted sundries for B.B. World—on the road in Massachusetts, across the United States, and around the globe in places including Puerto Rico.

Throughout her life, she enjoyed gardening, crocheting, discussing politics, reading, listening to talk radio, collecting curiosities, cooking, baking cookies, white chocolate, frosting, and chicken wings (but only the flat sides).

She was predeceased by her parents: Calogero and Crocifissa (Turco) Sperrazza; her husbands: George A. Scala Sr.  and Sumner M. “Sonny” Platten; her son-in-law: Robert F. Kelly Sr; and her siblings: Tina, Angelo, Salvatore, Josephine, Rosario, Charles, Joseph, and Eleanor.

She is survived by her children: Marilyn Kelly and her husband the late Robert, George A. Scala Jr. and his wife Maureen, and Victoria Sanchez (Fran’s “adopted Puerto Rican daughter”); her sister: Joanne Joseph and her husband Robert; her grandchildren: Denise Foley and her husband Stephen, Robert F. Kelly Jr. and his wife Jennifer, and George A. Scala III and his wife Suzanne Morris; her great-grandchildren: Sabrina Foley, Timothy Foley, Robert F. Kelly III, and Mia Kelly; and many nieces and nephews.

Visiting hours will be held on Friday, September 16, 2022, from 10-11AM followed by Funeral Prayers at 11AM.  Burial will follow at St. Michael’s Cemetery in Jamaica Plain (with Grandpa George). 

Her family would like to thank the nurses, staff, and doula at AccentCare Hospice Inpatient Center in Milton, for their incomparable care and professional attention and ask that donations in Frances’ name may be made to them at AccentCare Hospice, 597 Randolph Ave., Milton, MA 02186.