Curiously, Frank never mentions his mother by name. Her maiden name was Susan Moore, born in 1818 in Miami county, Ohio. Notes from a family bible show that she married Michael Stahl in 1840. Altogether, the couple had 8 children: Frank, Lavinah, Jerome, Lloyd, Sarah, Florence, Mary Belle, and Martha.

Connelly's 1918 Standard History of Kansas and Kansans has the following entry for her:

When reference is made to noted Kansas women, the name of Mrs. Michael Stahl should not be forgotten. Losing her husband soon after they had come to a farm in Kansas, she proved her resourcefulness in this time of trial and tribulation. She not only looked after the management of the domestic economy of the home, but also became a practical farmer, and made such a success of it that she reared her family and provided well for them. She was not merely a supervisor of the work of the farm, but she took her place in the field. She possessed both business ability and a physical strength such as few men could surpass. It is recalled that she could take a three bushel sack of wheat, weighing 180 pounds, from the ground and throw it over her shoulder with ease. No man in the neighborhvod could perform as much strenuous labor as Mrs. Stahl. It is related that she one time hired a man to go with her into a stone quarry. At the end of several days it was found that she had quarried twice as much as her fellow worker. The man then quit, declaring that he would be willing to undergo the prospect of eternal future torment rather than be compelled to work beside a woman who could perform twice as much labor as he could. Her physical strength was by no means her only virtue. She was exceedingly kind hearted, liberal and charitable, and was both admired and beloved in her community. She lived to the advanced age of eighty-three years. About a year before her death she felt that she should be baptized and was accordingly immersed in Six Mile Creek.

She died in 1901 and is buried in the Auburn cemetery, Shawnee county, Kansas.