Clementine Mae (Dressen) Frick, 89, of Brentwood, MO, died Monday, March 18, 2013, just five days short of her 90th birthday.
Funeral services will be Saturday, March 23, beginning at 2 p.m. at Jay B. Smith Maplewood Chapel, 7456 Manchester Road, in Maplewood, MO. Visitation will be from 12-2 p.m. Saturday before the service.
Born March 23, 1923, to Harry and Dora Dressen, she graduated from Litchfield High School in 1940.
Mrs. Frick was beloved by her family as "a firecracker and a true pioneer." As a young woman, she joined the U.S. Navy during World War II, serving in San Diego. She also worked as a fashion designer, a skill she retained and employed to her children's benefit years later.
She married Louis Frick outside of her faith at a time and place when doing so was a courageous act. She earned her college degree and teaching certificate while simultaneously taking on primary parenting responsibility for her four children while her husband's engineering job kept him out of town, except on weekends. She went on to teach multiple generations of St. Louis schoolchildren in the Maplewood Richmond Heights School District. In retirement, she frequently returned to her school district as a substitute teacher at the Early Childhood Center.
Years later, many of her former students would often stop her to thank her.
She is survived by a sister, Grace Melton of Denver, CO; and two brothers, Robert L. Dressen of Litchfield and William Dressen of Decatur; and her four children, Mary Ann, Louis Joseph, Suzanne, and David.
She was preceded in death by her parents and husband; a sister, Mary Dressen; and a brother Harry E. Dressen.
