This article was written by Michael Kaelin, recording secretary of the California Chapter of the Lincoln Highway Association.
Francis “Frank” H. Duarte passed away on November 22, 2011. He was the last business owner of the iconic Duarte’s Lincoln Highway Garage in Livermore, California.
Frank was born in 1915, the year of the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, a magnet destination and banner year for development of the early Lincoln Highway.
Frank had just turned 96, and had returned to Livermore in 2008 from Applegate, where he had retired in 1977. He had owned and managed Duarte’s Garage since his discharge from the Army Air Corps in 1945. Previously, he started working for his father, Frank, at the garage in 1934, later enlisting as an aircraft mechanic in 1939.
Mr. Duarte is survived by 2 nieces, Kathy Erickson of Scottsdale, Arizona and Donna Kosch of Everett, Washington. Services for him on December 14 were private, and Frank was interred at St. Michael Cemetery in Livermore. Donations in his name may be made to the Duarte Garage Museum, now operated by the Livermore Heritage Guild.
Coincidentally, the California Chapter is holding its winter quarter meeting at Duarte’s Garage on January 7, 2012. It will be a joint meeting with the Livermore Heritage Guild after a luncheon at Beebe’s Restaurant at the Livermore Golf Course.