PORTLAND – Frances W. Peabody, a community leader who became Maine’s best-known AIDS activist after her grandson died from the disease, has died after a short illness. She was 98.

Peabody, known as Frannie, helped found The AIDS Project, which serves people infected with HIV. The Peabody House, Maine’s only residential care facility for AIDS patients, is named in her honor.

She was admitted to Mercy Hospital over the weekend and died peacefully about 1 p.m. Tuesday with her family by her side, friends said.

After Peabody’s grandson died of AIDS in 1984, she started counseling and comforting victims of AIDS and working to educate the public about the disease at a time when it was not well known.

Mary Lake, executive director of the Peabody House, said Peabody helped change the way people looked at AIDS.

“Her influence was profound,” Lake said. “She changed the attitudes of a lot of people that others couldn’t reach.”

Advocates for people with AIDS said Peabody filled a void in the community. Her age, her stature and her experiences all have allowed her to fill a role that others couldn’t conceive of.

Peabody always downplayed her role.

“I don’t think I’ve done more than a lot of people,” she told The Associated Press in an interview in 1993. “We see tremendous courage. If these people can do it, we can keep doing it, too.”

Peabody, a Smith College alumnus, was the widow of Millard S. Peabody, who ran the Massachusetts-based E.E. Taylor Shoe Co. The family moved to Falmouth in 1951.

She was active in local historic preservation efforts and was a founding member of Greater Portland Landmarks.

But she is best known as an AIDS activist. She made it her mission to help people suffering from AIDS and to change public attitudes about the disease.

She helped start the AIDS Project to provide consolidated services for people with HIV. She later helped establish the Peabody House hospice, which opened in 1995 to help AIDS patients in advanced stages of the disease.

She did all this by soliciting the support of community leaders, starting with a luncheon at the exclusive Cumberland Club.

“It was not a popular thing to do back then,” she said. “Lots of people didn’t want to be associated with gay people.”

She remained active in AIDS issues to the end. She served as the grand marshal of the Portland Pride Parade on June 16, and attended the Peabody House board of trustees annual retreat on June 21.

She has won numerous awards and been profiled in national publications. In 1990, she was the 314th recipient of the Daily Points of Light Program awarded by President Bush. That same year, Maine Gov. John McKernan proclaimed Nov. 30, 1990, “Frannie Peabody Day.”