Frances Wilson Peabody lived out the final weeks of her long and productive life as though she was 38, not 98. In June alone, she attended the Portland Pride Parade, festooned in a pink feather boa, as well as the Peabody House Board of Trustees’ annual retreat.

That 16-room house in Portland, which she founded at age 81, will be her enduring legacy. The humble, sprightly woman with the sparkling blue eyes visited Maine’s only hospice for AIDS patients weekly, celebrating birthdays and mourning deaths.

Mrs. Peabody died Tuesday at Portland’s Mercy Hospital. A throng of admirers is certain to attend a community memorial service in her memory at that city’s Merrill Auditorium at 10 a.m. Saturday. They may recall her birth in Washington, D.C., in 1903, and her rearing in Santa Fe, N.M.

They may mention her bachelor’s degree in government and art history from Smith College, and her business acumen shared with her husband, Millard S. Peabody, whom she married in 1927. The couple operated a shoe company in Massachusetts, later moving it to Augusta.

The mother of five children (one died of crib death and three were stricken with polio), “Hurricane Fran,” as her many friends called her, blossomed in old age.

Widowed in 1962, she went on to fight for the preservation of historic Portland landmarks. After her 29-year-old grandson, Peter Vom Lehn, died of AIDS in 1984, Mrs. Peabody helped found the AIDS Project.

Maine’s foremost AIDS activist, and a fierce defender of gay rights, Mrs. Peabody found her voice when others had trouble finding theirs.

When President Clinton backed down from his original plan to allow homosexuals to serve in the military without restrictions, Frannie Peabody fired back, “I think it’s too bad he got everyone’s hopes up like he did, then he let them down.”

In 1998, Gov. Angus King declared April 18-25 as Frances Peabody Week. That week, and the Portland hospice that bears her name, along with countless memories of her many unheralded acts of kindness and generosity, hopefully will live on for years to come.

A large oil portrait of its namesake will continue to inspire residents of the Peabody House, whose staff welcomes donations in any amount. The address is 14 Orchard St., Portland 04102.