Leo L. Fritz

KAEPPEL, FRITZ, SCHLATTER

Posted By: dbeier (email)
Date: 4/11/2007 at 19:45:31

Leo L. Fritz
HAWKEYE - Funeral services for Leo LaVerne Fritz will be 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 3, at Trinity Lutheran Church, Hawkeye, with the Rev. Troy Pflibsen officiating. Burial will be in Hawkeye Cemetery, with military graveside rites performed by Arnold Rogers Post 312 American Legion of Hawkeye. Friends may call from 4 until 8 .p.m. Tuesday at Becker-Milnes Funeral Home in Hawkeye, and one hour before services at the church Wednesday.
Mr. Fritz, 87, died Sunday, Nov. 30, 1997, at the Good Samaritan Center in West Union after a lengthy illness.
He was born Aug. 17, 1910, in Hawkeye, the son of Edward and Emma Kaeppel Fritz. He attended Hawkeye area country school. He served with the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Theatre during World War II as chief electrician aboard the U.S.S. Oak Hill. On Nov. 24, 1946, he married Miriam Schlatter at Trinity Lutheran Church in Hawkeye. The ceremony was performed by the Rev. W. Kramer. Prior to his military service, Mr. Fritz worked for Hawkeye area farms and started playing in various bands at 16. After the war, he worked for Aspinwall Hardware and the Hawkeye Coop, before moving to his farm in 1951. He retired from farming in 1969 due to health reasons. He was a lifelong member of Trinity Lutheran Church where he served on the church council. He was a member of the Hawkeye American Legion, the American Federation of Musicians (secretary/treasurer for 15 years), and enjoyed ice skating, fishing, hunting and baseball.
Survivors include his wife, Miriam of Hawkeye; three sons, Paul (Eileen) of Oelwein, Dean (Linda) of Hawkeye, and Gene (Jo) of Prior Lake, Minn.; seven grandchildren; and one great-grandson.
He was preceded in death by his parents and two brothers, Harley and Edwin.