Mary Frances "Frannie" Collum Wasson was born in 1859 in Mazarne, Montgomery County, Arkansas, to John Monroe Collum and Elisabeth Jane Priddy Collum Smith. Frannie was one of four children born to this union. Other children were Emaline "Emmy", David Franklin, and Lela Savanna.

Her parents separated after the Civil War. The story has been told that John Collum came home several times while serving in the army of the Confederacy. In late 1865 he returned to Montgomery County, Arkansas, but took a trip shortly after his crop came in that fall. He was reported as killed to his wife, Elisabeth Priddy Collum. She was pregnant and to provide a father for her child, she married William A. Smith on June 7, 1866 in Montgomery County, Arkansas. When John Collum returned, he was so angry that he took all four children from her, and took them to his parent's home.
Mary Frances lived in the home of her uncle and aunt, James Asa and Permelia Solley Collum, in Cold Bath, Clark County, Arkansas. Her name is listed as "Harry F. Collum" as recorded in the 1870 Federal Census.

She married George Hamilton Wasson on May 23, 1880 in Black Springs, Montgomery County, Arkansas. Five children were born to this union. A set of twins, James Hamilton Wasson and Mary Frances Wasson (Farley), were born in Black Springs, Montgomery, Arkansas on December 9, 1883. A daughter, Rachel Minerva Wasson (Bobo), was born in Montgomery County, Arkansas on September 14, 1885. A son, George Washington Wasson, was born in Montgomery County, Arkansas on January 20, 1888. A son, Benjamin Franklin Wasson, was born on August 16, 1893, in Mount Ida, Montgomery County, Arkansas.

Mary Frances passed away in the Spring of 1899. A memorial to her was written in the Caddo Missionary Baptist minutes in the summer of 1899. She was buried in Arkansas.
(I have researched, walked, and hunted her grave. My Aunt Wanda Wasson Roberts told me she remembers her father telling her that his mother died in the Spring of 1899 and was buried in a grave marked by a field stone.). Since her father and half-brother George
Robert Collum are buried in Old Mount Tabor, I chose this location for my great grandmother.