Maxine Eckert Frischhertz

Maxine Eckert Frischhertz, 1921-2005

Maria Montoya
Staff writer

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."

Published in The Times-Picayune