Frances Mary White was born Frances Cottam on 21 May 1925, in Whiston, South Yorkshire. She was the only child in a farming family, and after her father's death in 1927 was brought up by her mother and two aunts.[1][2] White attended Leeds University, where she studied medicine, and met and married her husband there. She qualified in 1949, and went on to further study in obstetrics and gynecology.[3] Later in life she specialised in surgery for the treatment of severe varicose veins.[1] They moved to Bromsgrove for him to work as a general practitioner, and White was a surgeon in local hospitals.[1][3]
White was interested in music, and became involved in the Bromsgrove Music Festival in 1960.[1][4] She retired from medicine in 1980.[2] She took over the chairmanship of the festival in 1980, in the midst of a funding crisis.[3] She organised a new committee, new sponsors, and appointed a new artistic advisor, Donald Hunt, then head of music at Worcester Cathedral.[3] White also founded The Bromsgrove International Young Musicians Competition that year. She was rewarded for her contributions to the festival with an MBE in 2005.[5]
White was also a district officer with St John’s Ambulance Brigade, and served on the council of the British Medical Association for more than ten years.[1] White was governor at North Bromsgrove High School.[1]
White died on 30 March 2017, aged 91, and was survived by her two children.[1][6]