Who better to share tips for healthy living than a former college chancellor who remains active on campus and in the community as she nears 100?
Frances Bartlett Kinne, who reaches that landmark age May 23, is a long-time business and community leader in Jacksonville, and was the “first” woman in many endeavors.
“You learn something every day,” Kinne said Friday, after a morning discussion in her honor that focused on health.
An easy goal, she said, is to make sure you smile.
“We know and the studies show us that a smile not only helps the people you are looking at or talking to, it helps you,” she said.
Smiling is symbolic of positive thinking. “I believe in it strongly,” she said.
Kinne’s birthday this year is honored by a 2016-17 Jacksonville University speaker “Women’s Breakfast Series.” Its second installment Friday was “Feeling Fine.”
Kinne, now chancellor emerita, joined JU in 1958. She became the first woman dean of a College of Fine Arts in the world and the first woman to be president of a Florida university, leading JU in that position 1979-89. She remained as chancellor until 1994.
Along the way, among other achievements, she became the first woman to join the Rotary Club of Jacksonville and the first to serve as its president.
Kinne also is a benefactor at Mayo Clinic in South Jacksonville, where the Frances Bartlett Kinne Auditorium carries her name.
Kinne did not attend the Friday breakfast, but her insights that afternoon echoed the recommendations, which apply to everyone.
In addition to smiling and a positive attitude, Kinne stressed the importance of exercise, not smoking and remaining engaged while aging, especially post-retirement.
Environment plays a role.
Kinne said she and other children in her neighborhood walked daily during summers to a recreational park, where they swam, roller-skated, played and even worked in concessions.
“It was very good for us,” she said. “No wonder I got this old.”
Swimming was her strong sport, starting at the age of 5, thanks to her upper body strength developed from practicing on the piano. She began playing at age 2 and eventually would play up to six hours a day.
She doesn’t swim anymore, but she does play the piano.
Kinne never smoked cigarettes because she also was a singer. But her brother began smoking at the age of 35 and died at 42. She said smoking was a factor.
Remaining active plays a commanding role.
Her late husband, Harry Kinne, retired after more than three decades in the military, planning to hunt and fish. She kept working.
About a year into it, he said he couldn’t keep on. “It’s not good for me,” he told her.
A friend at Barnett Banks Inc., Chairman Guy Botts, asked Harry Kinne to open a bank.
When Kinne said he didn’t know banking, Botts said he was looking for a leader. Kinne joined the team.
“He got into a new profession when he was older. He was more stimulated, he was more motivated,” Fran Kinne said.
Kinne said she often talks to retiring 65-year-olds “who think they are going to just play golf.”
“The health goes down, the operations start. If they stay active, it is much easier,” she said.
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