Francis Charles “Frank” Cicero was one of three boys, but he knew he was destined to be a girl dad.

Right around the time he and his wife got engaged, years before they started having children, he predicted he’d be a father to three girls. Maybe it was a prophecy, or maybe it was a little manifestation, but Cicero was right — and he embraced every bit of it.

Ever the teaser, Cicero would wake up his daughters in the morning by sprinkling some water on their faces — a “papal blessing.” He’d help them with their school projects, and, as co-owner of Globe Poster Printing in Baltimore, gave them all the best art supplies. At night, the girls would make him paint their nails before bed.

Family was everything to him, and he made sure everyone knew it. He organized family reunions, planned frequent vacations and shared endless stories with his grandchildren. He passed down decades of family recipes — meatballs, spaghetti sauce and cookies that would make his Italian ancestors proud.

They are comforting memories for his loved ones now that he’s gone.

Cicero, a vibrant man who designed hundreds of eye-catching posters advertising concerts, carnivals, political campaigns and other events during his time at Globe, died March 7 of heart disease. He was 80.

He was born March 13, 1944, to Joseph and Marie Cicero. As the middle child, Cicero was a natural prankster and loved to poke fun at his brothers. His younger brother, Bob, shared a room with him and probably got the worst of it. Frank had a “game” as a kid where he’d let Bob hit him once, and then he had to hit him back five times. Joe, the oldest, had the sanctuary of his own room.

Frank Cicero was a smart kid who had many friends, Bob Cicero said. He graduated from Towson Catholic High School in 1962, and he earned a psychology degree from the University of Baltimore. He started his career as a social worker, drawn to help other people and give others the chance to experience the happy childhood he had, family said.

Several years into the job, Frank Cicero met Debra “Debbie” Rice. She’d moved to Baltimore in June 1974, and it only took a couple of months before he asked her out. They had their first date at The Milton Inn and bonded over their shared family values and love of social work. For him, it was love at first sight.

Around this time, Frank Cicero had been considering leaving social work. It was a taxing job, Bob Cicero said, and he was feeling some burnout. He decided to join Globe, which his father had recently purchased, in January 1975.

Though the company was originally known for advertising carnivals and burlesque shows, it became famous for colorful posters showcasing Motown, blues, Go-Go and rhythm-and-blues artists. The posters featured the likes of James Brown, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, B.B. King and Solomon Burke.

Frank Cicero designed many of them, in addition to manning the front desk and coordinating directly with clients.

“His enjoyment was doing the layouts, talking to the customers and then keeping track of the orders and making sure they got out,” Bob Cicero said.

Frank Cicero was a stickler about the wood type, the blocks of letters in different fonts used in printing, his brother said. He had a preference for fancy, italic text, in the style of the R&B artists the company often promoted. In addition to posters, the company produced handbills, tickets, drawings and other art.

With his work life settling down, it was time to start a family. He proposed to Debbie in May, and they were married in November. A few years later, they welcomed Sarah, and Julia and Mary followed soon after.

Being a father came naturally to him, Debbie Cicero said. When the girls were young, he’d play school with them, and he’d play the part of a bad student named Billy. He’d give all the wrong answers or do something he wasn’t supposed to do, and the girls laughed as they decided the consequences.

Outside of work and home, Frank Cicero was a passionate Baltimore historian and a longtime member of the Baltimore Streetcar Museum. He enjoyed fishing with his brother, going to movies with his wife and boating at the family shore home in Pasadena.

As he grew older, Cicero fell sick frequently. He had a heart attack in his 40s and soon after developed kidney disease. In 2000, Bob Cicero donated a kidney to him; in 2018, he received another kidney transplant. It was all “very hard for him, because he liked to be active,” his wife said.

Still, “he really did maintain a positive attitude, which is not easy,” Sarah Cicero said. “He has had a strong faith, and I think that really helped to get him through.”

Frank Cicero was a lifelong Catholic. The family joked that if he hadn’t met Debbie, he would have been a priest. As a teenager, he was very active in his local Catholic Youth Organization (CYO). As an adult, he belonged to the Holy Name Society, a Catholic fraternity. He found comfort and solace in his religion.

He was as active as he could be through the years. He worked at Globe Poster Printing until it closed in 2010, when the family donated its printing materials to the Maryland Institute College of Art. Some of Cicero’s posters have been featured in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, among other institutions.

Toward the end of his life, he spent much of his time with his grandchildren. His and Debbie’s first grandchild was born on their wedding anniversary — the best present they could think of, she said. His six grandchildren called him “Pop.”

“We would go to parks, go to picnics, take them to museums,” Debbie Cicero said. “Frank would love to tell stories and make up stories. … We would have a good time.”

Debbie Cicero is thinking back on those days often now. She misses sharing little moments with him — ”the joys and sorrows of everyday life,” she said. He was a well-balanced person who was loyal to his family and friends. When you made a friend in Frank Cicero, you had a friend for life — even if you didn’t want one, she joked.

He navigated life with strong convictions and a kind spirit, Bob Cicero said. If there were a soundtrack to his brother’s life, he said, it would be Frank Sinatra’s “My Way”: He faced it all and did it his way.

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