Bernice (Bee) Fritz

Bernice "Bee" Fritz, formerly of Rock Island County, passed away Monday, May 21, 2012, in her daughter's home in Ruidoso, New Mexico, at the magnificent age of 107.
Services are 10:30 a.m. Friday at Riverside United Methodist Church, Moline, where she was a member for over 60 years. The Rev. Dr. Donald Jackson will officiate. Burial is in Hampton Cemetery. Visitation is 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at Trimble Funeral and Cremation Center, Moline. Memorials may be made to the church.
What a full life she did live! Born in Chester, Iowa, on Nov. 3, 1904, she witnessed the arrival of electricity and indoor plumbing, the introduction of the automobile (her father purchased one of the first in Chester), was in awe of the Wright Brothers and for over 50 years frequently flew throughout the world. She was the valedictorian of her high school class. She always laughed at that honor since there were only three in her class.
Bee attended Winona Teachers College, Minnesota, for one year and took a job in a one room schoolhouse teaching all eight grades. She walked five miles each way daily, carrying a pistol for protection.
Her teaching job only enabled her to attend Cornell College, Iowa, for two years. She left Cornell to teach again in Huron and Rossi, Iowa. She met Kenneth Fritz and they eloped on April 17, 1928. Married school teachers were not hired at that time, so their marriage was kept a secret. But in Ken?s proposal he promised to support her dream of a college degree and she graduated Cornell in 1929.
After their first eight years in Moline near 23rd Avenue, Bee and Ken moved to their home on Hawthorn Hill overlooking the dam between Hampton and Rapids City. There, they raised their three children: Majel Lee Powell (Ruidoso, N.M.), Barie Pendelton Fritz and his wife, Jane, (Albuquerque, N.M.) and Dawn Dee Hopkins and her husband, Ted, (Scottsdale, Ariz.) for the next 45 years.
During World War II, there was a shortage of teachers. Ken taught Bee how to drive and she returned to teaching at Rose Hill School, East Moline, (a one room school with all eight grades). She became an English and Latin teacher at Orion High School where she also directed school plays. She taught at Franklin Junior High, Rock Island, and she was an English and French teacher at Pleasant Valley High School, Bettendorf, where for many years she took students to Europe over the Christmas holidays. She continued to teach there into her late 70s and then retired.
In her 80s she was asked to replace a Port Byron French teacher, who had been in a car accident. After three years she finally retired for good.
Bee was a writer all her life and had short stories, magazine articles and poems published. She wrote a column for the Port Byron Globe for several years. But her main love was travel, and she frequently traveled to exotic places most of her adult life. At the age of 96, she took a cruise around the world. At 100 she went to China for a three-week trip.
Bee Fritz was a member of many organizations in the area: DAR (regent twice), Daughters of the Colonial Wars, Ancient and Honorable, New England Women, Mayflower Descendants, Magna Carta Society, Society of Charlemagne, Kings Daughters (president twice), National Rifle Association, PEO and the Black Hawk Hiking Club.
Bee lived alone in her Moline home and was still driving until she was 104.
She had eight grandchildren, Lee Powell Fones and her husband Michael, Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.; Lay Powell, Ruidoso; Zizi Fritz, Albuquerque; Ryan Fritz and his wife, Anji, Corrales, N.M.; Preston (Fritz) Youngdahl, Wayzata, Minn.; Mark Hopkins and his wife, Kelly, Rancho Pales Verdes, Calif.; Scott Hopkins and his wife, Peg, Davenport; and Paige Hopkins Reilly and her husband, Kevin, Winnetka, Ill. She had nine great-grandchildren.
Bee?s family invites friends to share stories and condolences and light a candle in her memory at www.TrimbleFuneralHomes.com.