Frances Rich was born in Spokane, Washington in 1910, daughter of actress Irene Rich. She received a B.A. from Smith College in 1931. In 1933 she met sculptor, Malvina Hoffman, and studied with her in Paris for two years. On her return to the U.S., Rich did intensive work at the Boston Museum School and established her own studio in New York City. Between 1937 and 1940 she was a resident student at Cranbrook Academy of Art, where she met sculptor Carl Milles, with whom she worked for the next eighteen years. She has been featured in many publications and has exhibited in major art centers. Her works include portrait busts at Smith College; the Army-Navy Nurse Monument in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.; a bronze pelican in front of Pelican Building, University of California, Berkeley; marble bust of Alice Stone Blackwell for the Boston Public Library; and portrait busts of Lotte Lehmann, Margaret Sanger, Diego Rivera, Katharine Hepburn, and others. Rich was a Lieutenant Director in the U.S. Navy Reserve from 1942 to 1946 and Director of Public Relations at Smith College from 1947 to 1950. Frances Rich died in 2007.