Doris F. Tead

Tead, Doris F.

Doris F. Tead (born Doris Alice Fromm), age 90, the daughter of Edward and Alice Fromm of Hamburg, Wisconsin, died peacefully Wednesday morning, June 22, 2016, at the Lyngblomsten Care Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Doris was born on July 29, 1925, in Merrill, Wisconsin, and was the second of Edward and Alice's three girls (oldest, Lenore, youngest, Johanna). She grew up with the family's fur and ginseng business, Fromm Bros., Inc., most loved riding horses around the Fromm properties, and was also passionate about music - especially playing the piano. The company was established by Edward and his brothers in the early 1900's. As described in Bright With Silver by Kathrene Pinkerton (1947), during its period of greatest success Fromm Bros. was both the largest fox farm in the world (over 50,000 head) and largest ginseng farm in the world (100 acres in cultivation), employing hundreds of local residents, even through the years of the Great Depression. Doris would eventually become president of the company after Edward completed retirement in the early 1980's.

After transferring from Carleton College in Northfield, MN, Doris graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1947 with a bachelor's degree in Economics. She subsequently relocated to New York City where she attended the Tobé-Coburn School of Design. She found accomplishment creating window-front displays for Manhattan businesses while also helping Fromm Bros. with its New York City garment manufacturing operation.

In New York Doris met her future husband John C. Tead via his brother Donald, and on May 28,1948 they were married in Sudbury, MA near John's home town of Lincoln. While living on the East Coast they had children Alice and Edward (Ned), with Stanley being born after moving to the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area. Doris was preceded in death by son Ned in 2003, and by her husband John in 2006.

Doris's enduring legacy will be her unqualified and exemplary devotion to family, her exceptional concern for others, and her extraordinary kindness. She was cherished deeply by her family and friends. She will be dearly missed by her children, Alice and Stan, by her four grandchildren, Max and Lexi Tead, Douglas Tead, and Steven Baer, as well as her sister Johanna Buscher and her many nieces and nephews. A family memorial service was held for her at St. Timothy Lutheran Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota on July 2nd, 2016, officiated by Pastor Hans Jorgensen