Frances Margaret Parsons, also known as Peggie, was born in El Cajon, California on September 25, 1923 to Harold and Hester Parsons. Her sole sibling is a twin sister, Hester "Polly" Parsons. She was identified as deaf as the age of five from an unknown cause. After attempts at oral and mainstreamed education, her parents enrolled both girls at the California School for the Deaf in Berkeley in 1931. The family was hit by the Great Depression and Hester Parsons moved to Tahiti in the South Pacific. Harold, the father, followed shortly after with the twins. They lived in Tahiti for six years, during which Hester provided an informal education for her children. Frances disliked writing at first but discovered a passion for writing, particularly with adjectives, when her mother introduced her to a local author.

The family returned to the United States in 1941 when the U.S. declared war with Japan and the Japanese began to occupy the Pacific in their campaign for the Sphere of Co-Prosperity. The Parsons family embarked upon a sailing schooner and escaped to San Francisco where both girls returned to the California School for the Deaf. Frances graduated from CSD in 1943 and attended Gallaudet College (now University) for two years. She withdrew in 1945 to marry. She focused the next two decades on raising her two daughters, Vincette Dee and Valerie West in California. After her divorce in 1964 she returned to Gallaudet to complete her studies, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History in 1967. During those years, she began her international travels, traveling to France, Italy, England, Ireland, and Greece to study art history, archaeology, and sculpture.

In the fall of 1967, she taught English at the Maryland School for the Deaf in Frederick. Within a year, she was offered a tutoring position in the tutorial center at Gallaudet. She returned to tutor in both Spanish and English from 1968 to 1973. After five years of teaching, she moved on to the Art Department as an Associate Professor where she taught History of Art until 1988. She was then employed as Coordinator of International History Collections at Gallaudet University, where she worked for five years until her retirement in 1993.

She went abroad several times throughout the 1970s and 1980s, touring Iran, China, Turkey, India, Australia, South Africa, western Africa, southeast Asia, Russia, Mongolia, and South America. Frances is an indefatigable traveler, having traveled to each of the seven continents, including Antarctica in 2006 at the age of 83. Her travels abroad were not solely for the study of art history, but rather, to promote the total communication method. Frances believed that total communication, rather than oralism alone, would be more effective in providing a good education as well as solid communication skills to deaf children. She lectured, met with teachers and administrators, taught sign language, and used herself as a model of an effective total communication environment. During her travels she became involved with the Peace Corps as a consultant, establishing a program for deaf volunteers in the Philippines in 1974. Her first major trip as a Total Communication "Ambassador" was in 1976 where she embarked upon a year-long trip taking her throughout the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Australia. She continued to work with the Peace Corps as a Peace Corps Professional Participant. She received numerous honors, awards, and accolades for her trip. Many respected Frances for braving such far flung travels alone as a deaf woman. In 1977, Gallaudet's Board of Trustees honored her with a commendation for her work abroad. She based her book, "I Didn't Hear the Dragon Roar", upon her travels alone in China in 1986. Her other publications also include "Sound of the Stars," which she authored in 1971 based upon her life in Tahiti. The diaries which these two books are based upon can be found in this collection. Frances has added a few more recent publications to her repertoire: "Deaf Women's Lives," "I Knew Elizabeth Peet," and NAD ABC signs translated into English."

Frances is also a prolific author, having written numerous articles for various magazines such as Deaf Life, The Deaf American, The Buff and Blue, and The Silent News. She also appeared in a People Magazine profile about teachers.

In between her constant travels, teaching Art History, she earned a Master's degree from the University of Maryland in Art History. Her thesis can be found in the Gallaudet Library collection. After her Master's degree, she continued to study art history at Georgetown University, George Washington University, and Howard University. After her retirement in 1993, her attentions and energies were focused upon writing for various publications, managing her Frances M. Parsons international endowment fund which funded individuals to go abroad to teach English to the deaf, and travels.