Nancy Atkinson Fricke

Our beloved mother, Nancy Atkinson Fricke, died at age 98 on May 22, 2019 in Crestview, Florida.  Nancy was born the third of six children on March 17, 1921 in LaPorte Indiana.  She received her nursing degree from Cook County Hospital School of Nursing where she also met our father, Raymond W. Fricke, MD.  They were married in 1945 upon his return from serving as Battalion Surgeon with the 10th Mountain Division in Italy during WWII.  She was preceded in death by her young son William in 1954, and by her husband in 1999.  Nancy is survived by her six children: Helen (Charles) Nordstrom, Jane (James) Boren, Anne (William [dec.]) Weir, Catherine (Burt) Ward, Robert (Peg Junck), and Raymond (Elizabeth Hogan); fifteen grandchildren; and eighteen great-grandchildren.

While Nancy spent her final years in Florida to be near two of her daughters, she lived her adult life in Joliet, Illinois.  She and Dad loved the home they built together in Joliet, and their lake home in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin.  Our family shares many happy memories of gatherings in both places.  We feel blessed that Nancy’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren had the opportunity to know and love their grandparents, to witness their unfailing love, and honorable, worthy lives that embodied the Christian faith and the values of the ‘Greatest Generation’.