Jewell (Fritz) Henrichs was born in Wichita, Kansas on August 30, 1926 to Leroy and Edna Fritz. They lived on a farm north of Wichita in Maize, Kansas. Jewell was raised in the Maize Congregational Church. Jewell studied music and played the piano for school programs and the hymns at church on the antique pump organ. She never had to do chores around the farm because she was the baby. She was pretty good at getting lemonade to her dad in the field though!
Jewell graduated from Maize High School in 1944 as valedictorian. She worked at the Fourth National Bank in Wichita and attended Friends University for two years. She sang in the Singing Quakers, which was all girls, during the war with a few male vocalists. She took private piano lessons with "Miss Joy" and also voice with Elsa Henry. Jewell had planned to be a public school music teacher but she met Bill Henrichs and became a wife and mother! Through her dorm roommate Joan Hatfield she met Joan's fiance' Don Henrichs and then met his brother Bill when he returned from World War II. Bill and Jewell married in June of 1947 on Friday the 13th.
Daughters Elaine and Diane were born in 1950 and 1958. Jewell was at home for the girls during their growing up years and worked in the PTA at McCormick Elementary and Allison Junior High. As a member of Friends University Church she taught the four year olds Sunday School class for 14 years. She also worked at the Camp Fire Girls District level in Organizing and Programming and was a group leader for both daughters.
After three mergers in 33 years, Bill was transferred from Derby Oil to Colorado Oil in Denver, CO in 1971. It was hard to leave family in Wichita since the brothers, Bill, Dick and Don were pretty close, and Jewell had to leave her sisters-in-law Joan and Velma. Bill and Jewell also left their good friends they made at Friends Church: The Rishels, Pearces, Cox's and Teubners. As a girl, Elaine got Bill and Jewell interested in rocks and minerals and they were active in the Wichita Gem and Mineral Society. They worked with the junior rockhounds for several years. The Pearces were in the rock club too and they went on rock trips in the tri-state area. They made seven exciting trips down in a bucket on a cable in an abandoned, pitch black lead mine in Pitcher, OK to rock hunt with their head lamps, hard hats, picks and shovels.
Also, before leaving Wichita, Bill and Jewell joined the Audubon Society and became birders with the Pearces. Jewell had 408 birds on her life list. Fourteen of those birds were from Hawaii that they added when they went with Betty and Dave Wagner, Bill's cousins.
Growing up, the daughters were very special in their lives. Elaine went to KU on an art scholarship a short time. Diane went to Fort Lewis College and UCLA and taught elementary school for three years in Los Angeles. Elaine married twice and had Jewell's only grandchild, Nora.
Bill and Jewell lived in the same house in Lakewood, CO for 33 years. After they retired, they spent time traveling on fishing trips with the Henrichs guys and wives, in their three motorhomes. They all had CB radio handle names on their PA system. Bill and Jewell also motorhomed their way to 47 states. Jewell retired from Jefferson County public schools as an administrative assistant for the purchasing department.
A few quotes from Jewell:
Jewell often mentioned her 7th grade teacher at Maize, Miss Froman who had the students learn a four line poem each week. She specifically remembered this one from George Washington, "Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation. For it is better to be alone than in bad company."
And
"Life and death are puzzles to some of us. Grief is a journey, not a destination. Do not stand at my grave and weep. I am not there. I am the thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond "jewell" that glints in the snow."
COMPARTA UN OBITUARIO
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