Memorial Slated for ‘Granny Girn’
SANTA ANA — A memorial is scheduled May 5 for an Orange County woman whose face was featured on humorous posters, greeting cards and Johnny Carson’s “The Tonight Show.”
Frances Sayers, known as “Granny Girn,” died April 18 at the age of 89 at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center. The cause of death was not disclosed.
The Santa Ana resident became a celebrity in 1973 when she defeated 9,000 people in a radio station’s “Girning Contest” with a funny-face picture that showed her tucking her nose under her lower lip and crossing her eyes.
The pose was later aired on Carson’s TV show and printed on hundreds of cards and posters.
“The news snowballed, and she was on all the shows,” said her daughter, Mary Ferris of Santa Ana.
Ms. Sayers told interviewers that she began making silly faces during World War II to cheer children in London bomb shelters.
Besides her daughter, Ms. Sayers is survived by her son, John, six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
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