Katrina's Lives Lost:	Maxine Eckert Frischhertz 1921-2005 
Submitted By: 		N.O.V.A January 2006
Source:			Times Picayune 12-14-2005

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Single parenting was a particularly difficult life for a woman in
the 1950s, when divorce still carried a social stigma and
employment opportunities were anything but equal. 

But after divorcing Roland Frischhertz in 1959, native New
Orleanian Maxine Eckert Frischhertz took on the responsibility of
supporting herself and her two daughters, Lynda and Nancy, by
herself. 

"It was really hard in those times for a woman to be on her own, to
even get a job or make enough money to make it," daughter Lynda
Keller said. 

Frischhertz was up to the challenge, finding a job as an office
clerk at a local insurance company and continuing there until her
retirement in 1984. 

"Each morning, she'd get up in the cold or hot, whatever the
season, to walk blocks to the bus stop," Keller said. "When her
office was in (eastern New Orleans), she'd have to go from the
Lower 9th Ward to the east. Then, when they moved the office to
Metairie, she rode all the way to Metairie. Life was never easy on
her." 

Her daughters remember her as a strict disciplinarian, but also as
a witty woman with a passion for gardening, paperback books and
movies. After a week of juggling work and home demands, Frischhertz
often took time on weekends to treat herself and her girls to lunch
and an afternoon show at the Orpheum. Her favorite flicks: anything
with John Wayne. She also enjoyed old-fashioned love stories. 

"Wherever we went, we always went by bus because my mother was
scared to death of driving," daughter Nancy Zucconi said. 

Frischhertz didn't let her fear of driving deter her from traveling
in her later years. Her daughters said she enjoyed small excursions
to Lakeside Shopping Center just as much as she liked traveling
with AARP tours to the Grand Ole Opry, the Alamo or Las Vegas. Her
friends enjoyed her sense of humor, her ability to say something
coy without realizing how funny her words were to anyone else. 

"She just never knew how funny she was, but the way she could make
you laugh was unforgettable," Keller said. 

Frischhertz developed major bone and joint problems in recent
years. Unable to care for her on their own, her daughters moved
their mother to St. Rita's Nursing Home in St. Bernard Parish. 

As Hurricane Katrina approached, the sisters initially believed
that their mother would be safer there than with them. But Keller
became concerned the Sunday afternoon before the storm when she
phoned her mother and learned that the residents had not been
evacuated. Her mother had ridden out Hurricane Betsy at home in
1965 and was traumatized by the flooding that followed. 

"She feared hurricanes. Ever since Betsy she always evacuated,
always," Keller said. 

"She was a total scaredy-cat when it came to water. Just
petrified." 

On Aug. 29, Katrina's tidal surge swept through St. Rita's. The
coroner at St. Gabriel's ruled that Maxine Frischhertz, who wasn't
able to walk on her own and had never learned to swim, died from
asphyxiation as a result of drowning. 

"We didn't believe we had anything to worry about," Keller said.
"We thought she'd be safe. Never did I want my mother to die like
this."