Freida Marie Richards

Reflections on the life of Freida Marie Richards by her children, Janis, Joy and Ronald, April 30 2016.
Freida Marie Richards, age 92, born November 27, 1923 passed April 30, 2016, at 9:20 AM under Hospice care at The Waters of Greencastle nursing home. She was preceded in death by her husband Robert L. in 2000, and youngest daughter Julee Simpson in 2004. She is survived by sisters Rosemary Hurt, Indianapolis, and LaVerne Redmeier, Cocoa Beach, Florida, son Ronald L. Richards, Indianapolis, and daughters Janis Rae Wilson, Cloverdale, and Joy Renee Jones, Indianapolis. There are 6 grandchildren, 15 great grandchildren, 3 great great grandchildren, and many step grandchildren at all 3 levels.
The daughter of Wallace and Clara Marie Preston (Judd), Freida was born and raised on the Indianapolis East side, was a graduate of Arsenal Technical High School, and employed in the 1940’s as a Bell Telephone switchboard operator in downtown Indianapolis. With the 1946 marriage to Robert L. Richards, the “one and only” man in her life, Freida became a model dedicated housewife and mother of the 1950’s and 1960’s. She neither drank, smoked nor used profanity. She cleaned and redecorated the house continually and maintained flower and vegetable gardens. A nurturing person, Freida loved children, raised four of her own, and for two decades provided day care for several successive families of children for supplemental income. She always cleaned up and put on makeup for dad’s arrival home from work, and was rarely seen without earrings.
With formal sit-down family meals in the evening, less formal daytime meals and snacks with the children included Chef-Boyar-Dee pizza, fried green tomatoes, fried baloney and fried egg sandwiches, fish sticks & sloppy Joe sandwiches. Along with her sisters and mother, Freida was a good cook and gracious host for family reunions at Thanksgiving and other holidays. Greek cabbage and fish were among her favorites, and no one could duplicate her fudge. She always popped up a large pan of popcorn for the periodic Saturday night trip to the Twin drive-in, and sandwiches for an annual one day vacation trip to the Cincinnati Zoo.
For over two decades the artistically talented Freida created dozens of oil paintings, typically of landscapes, which immediately began to adorn the homes of family and friends. In the 1950’s and early 1960’s she enjoyed having a “coke” (Coca-Cola) with her visiting sisters and mother while watching “Search for Tomorrow” and other soap operas on television. She was always close to her sister Rosemary. Known as “no pass Freda” she treasured her weekly Saturday night Euchre card games with her mother, sisters and friends from the 1960’s until 2014. She seemed to always have a picture puzzle in progress on a table. She liked to tan in the sun, until its harmful effects were popularized later in her life. After the advent of digital imagery she enjoyed watching family DVD videos. She exercised throughout her life (following Jack LaLane on television in the 1960’s), and continued to do so until less than two years before her passing. Her workouts included lifting a window sash weight overhead, and she was known to challenge others in arm wrestling. With her husband and daughter Joy, in 1973 she had her “trip of a lifetime” to Hawaii.
In the late 1960’s and 1970’s she learned how to drive – a Ford Mustang convertible – and worked for several years at J.C. Penny catalog division at Eastgate Shopping Center to supplement the family income and to buy new furniture and decorate the home. She spent the later years of her life with her daughter Janis in Cloverdale Indiana. Freida did quite well at pursuing and sustaining the ideals and kind of life that a previous generation strived to attain. She touched many hearts and is missed by all.