Dr. Francine Mannix was a pioneering physician who transformed Reno’s medical community as the city’s first woman pediatrician and only its second woman doctor. After moving to Reno in 1953, she earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Nevada and her medical degree from UCLA in 1962, followed by a two‑year pediatric internship at Fresno General Hospital in California. She briefly practiced with Dr. Karl H. Ziegenhorn in 1966 before opening her own practice, and in 1969 was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Throughout her career, she broke new ground for women in medicine while caring for families both in her private practice and at Saint Mary’s Sun Valley Clinic, serving the community until her retirement in 2013.
Dr. Francine Mannix was interviewed by the Nevada Women’s History Project on October 15, 2025, in Reno, Nevada, through a grant from the Estelle J Kelsey Foundation.