Froehlich’s life has been filled with family, music and baseball
Froehlich’s life has been filled with family, music and baseball
By Mike Bellmore
Journal Features Editor
(Reprinted with permission from Devils Lake Journal)
When Leo and Jackie Froehlich arrived in Devils Lake, they immediately fell in love with the community.
Neighbor Jay Schneider is always ready, willing and available to shovel snow off the elderly couple’s sidewalk.
Froehlich always fell back on his music if he needed a pick-me-up and they were good friends with former school superintendent Richard Kunkel and principal Les Nyhus.
Froehlich ended up being a 27-year music teacher at the school, and spent seven years at Jamestown College.
“We just love it here,” Jackie said in their comfortable home on 3rd St. N.E.
In recent years, however, Leo’s health has deteriorated.
In 2003, he went to Rochester and was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis.
He’s confined pretty much to his home and ventures outside rarely, especially in the winter.
Doctors figure he contracted the disease during World War II.
The Veterans Administration has been superb, he says, and credits Emery Fischer with taking good care of his situation.
When he needs to be “picked up,” he simply thinks back to his career in music. “I was taught to sing Hawaiian songs phonetically,” Froehlich adds. “I really love baseball and music.”
Froehlich says he got out of the Navy in 1946 and earlier played centerfield on McClusky’s state tournament team.
