Elsie N. Fry, of Harrisonville, Missouri, was born April 15, 1916 in Constantinople, Turkey, the next to the youngest of 13 children of Stephen and Mary T. (Eugene) Nichols. She departed this life Friday, April 11, 2008, Crown Care Center, Harrisonville at the age of 91 years, 11 months and 26 days.
Elsie came to America with her family in 1920 when she was four years old, and they took up residency in Michigan. She graduated high school in 1936 and worked various jobs in the Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Ypsilanti areas. Some of these jobs were as a nurses' aide for the University of Michigan Hospital and on a factory assembly line during World War II.
Elsie met Richard H. Fry, in 1937 when he was working on a farm in Michigan. Due to the war, they waited until October 14, 1946 to marry and move to Springfield, Missouri. After her divorce in 1961, Elsie eventually moved to a duplex in Olathe, Kansas in 1968 where she lived for 36 years and continued to do housework for a living for many lady friends as she had done in Springfield. In 2004, she moved to a retirement apartment in Harrisonville, Missouri where she made many friends and enjoyed shopping at Wal-Mart across the street. In 2007, she had to move to Crown Care Center, a nursing home in Harrisonville,
Besides her parents, she was preceded in death by 12 brothers and sisters.
She is survived by three children, Jeanette Buller and husband Thomas, Kansas City, Missouri, Steve Fry and wife Julie, Harrisonville, Missouri, Jerry Fry, Freeman, Missouri; seven grandchildren, Tanya, Andrew, Kevin, Debbie, Matthew, Aimee and Christopher; three great-grandchildren; other relatives and friends.
Graveside services were held Tuesday, April 15, 2008 at Antioch Brick Church Cemetery, Springfield, Mo. under the direction of Dickey Funeral Home, Harrisonville, Mo.