Dolores “Jo” Froehlich Deer
Dolores “Jo” Froehlich Deer, 89, went to meet the Lord on Monday at her home in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Dolores was born Feb. 7, 1929, in Mount Oliver, a suburb of Pittsburgh.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Frank and Ann Froehlich; as well as her sister, Dorothy Dagnal; and her brothers, Leonard and Donald Froehlich.
Dolores attended Brentwood High School, where she specialized in secretarial skills, graduating in 1947.
After working for a steel company for several years, she acquired a job with Pan American Airlines which took her to Florida where she advanced to the position of secretary to the chief pilot.
Delores enjoyed traveling and in the 1950s, she and her father enjoyed a trip to Europe. She and her girlfriends also enjoyed many shopping trips to Havana, Cuba.
In the late 1950s, Dolores returned to Pittsburgh to help her parents for a period while her father was experiencing employment problems. At that time, she accompanied a girlfriend to a party put on by some sailors attending a factory school at the Westinghouse Nuclear Power facility in Large, Pa. It was there she met her future husband, Charlie Deer. Charlie and Jo were married on Jan. 16, 1960, and traveled to Pascagoula, Miss., where Jo went to work in industrial relations at the Ingalls Ship Yard while Charlie was assigned to his first nuclear powered submarine.
After the commissioning, Jo shipped their meager household gear to San Diego, and found a place to live. When the submarine arrived, she was there to pick Charlie up and show him how to get home and how to get back to the boat the next morning. This was the first of the eight moves the Deers made during their 58-year marriage. They lived in Mississippi, California, Pennsylvania, Maine, Connecticut, Hawaii and Alaska.
Jo was able to get acquainted in different communities by joining sewing groups, homemaker clubs and cooking classes with other wives from the various boats to which Charlie was attached. Jo also enjoyed vacationing and hunting in their camper and motorhome. As a side interest, she also became involved in shooting and hunting with Charlie and his friends. Jo had her own target pistol and did quite well at competitive matches, achieving the level of marksman. Her biggest prize was the buffalo she harvested in Big Delta, Alaska.
Neither hunting nor shooting could compare to her love of fishing. She always liked to fish but after coming to Alaska and Charlie began taking her fishing in an airplane or boat, fishing became her favorite sport. She would stand on a barbed wire fence to fish. She was well known in Alaska for her canned smoked salmon. Charlie made the mistake of putting up a wind break during one of the ice fishing trips he had taken Jo and her friend, Connie, on and it took way too long for them to get cold and want to go home.
Dolores, “Jo,” is survived and will be missed by her husband, Charles Deer; and many nieces and nephews, as well as many lifelong friends.
DEER — Arrangements for Dolores “Jo” Froehlich Deer, who died Monday, March 19, 2018, were entrusted to Blanchard Family Funeral Home, Fairbanks, Alaska.Online condolences may be made at blanchardfamilyfuneralhome.com.
