Baker City, Oregon
Lena Lorene Frericks, 78, a longtime Baker City resident, died Nov. 9, 2002, at St. Elizabeth Health Services.
Recitation of the rosary will be Friday at 7 p.m. at St. Francis de Sales Cathedral. Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated Saturday, Nov. 16, at 10 a.m. at St. Francis de Sales Cathedral. The Rev. Rob Irwin of St. Francis de Sales Cathedral will officiate. Interment will be at Mount Hope Cemetery. A reception will follow at the church.
Visitations will be Friday from noon to 5 p.m. at Gray’s West & Co. Pioneer Chapel, 1500 Dewey Ave.
Lena was born in North Powder on Feb. 2, 1924, to Stanley Shaw and Ethel Tally Shaw. She graduated from North Powder High School in 1942, and then attended Baker Business College.
Lena began working in Baker City at Lew Brothers Tires, and at the Geiser Grand Hotel. She met Joe Frericks after he came home from World War II, and they were married on Oct. 14, 1949. They had three daughters, and Lena was a homemaker for many years until her daughters were out on their own.
She was active in the VFW Auxiliary, was a past president, and was a co-leader for the VFW Junior Girls Unit. She took the girls baton twirling group to march in many parades, and they did activities to benefit our local veterans. Lena was also active as a 4-H leader of a knitting and sewing group. She continued her interest in knitting through the years, eventually opening her own yarn shop downtown — The Knitting Nook — which she operated along with the Greyhound bus depot for several years.
She closed the yarn shop in 1992, when she and Joe retired.
Lena also enjoyed league bowling, playing pinochle, working on the local election board, and she spent many volunteer hours at the Oregon Trail Museum, and the Community Connection Senior Center. In later years, she and Joe joined the Good Sam Club and enjoyed their regular social meetings and their RV outings around the state.
Lena was a wonderful wife, mother, and friend. She will be missed by all who knew her.
Lena is survived by her husband, Joe Frericks; her daughters and sons-in-law, Nikki Hylton Rankin and Russ Rankin, Karen and Steve Cloudt, and Mary Jo and Stuart Carpenter; eight grandchildren, Ryan, Tracy, Mindi and Erica Hylton, and David, Christy, Andrea and Amy Cloudt; two step-grandchildren, Jake and Becky Rankin; brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, Dale Cain, Ann Shaw, Ted and Clare Frericks, Leo Frericks, Connie and Bill Fisher, Louise Todd, and Ramona Idler; and numerous nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by all her sisters and a brother, Eileen Head, Lucille Cain, Ardith LaDuke, and Sherwood Shaw; and her son-in-law, Bill Hylton.
Memorial contributions can be made to VFW Cancer Center, Commission for the Blind or Meals on Wheels in care of Gray’s West & Company, P.O. Box 726, Baker City, OR 97814.
Used with permission from: Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, November 15, 2002
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor