Helen Sergeant Haynes Fries

After graduating from William and Mary in 1935, she married Colonel Stuart Gilbert Fries at Schofield Barracks in the territory of Hawaii, May 5, 1938. Col. Fries left on the first troop ship after Pearl Harbor for the Pacific. His initial destination was Bataan in the Philippines. His ship was rerouted to New Caledonia where he stayed for months before being rerouted to the United States for redeployment to Europe. After Col. Fries left for the Pacific, Mrs. Fries joined the Red Cross. According to a Washington Post clipping, while with the Red Cross, she assisted the allied troops by opening Britain’s first Aerofleet Club at an RAF station in Dunkeswell where US Navy Liberators worked with Coastal Command. The combination of Aero Club and Fleet Club probably lead her to call her club the Aero Fleet Club. After D Day, she drove a Red Cross Clubmobile ashore at Omaha Beach from a landing craft and followed the 1st Army, 29th Division to Germany receiving their orders from the Army and making fresh coffee and donuts from her club mobile, while Col. Fries commanded the 747th Tank Battalion landing on D+1 at Normandy and advancing to Germany.

Amazingly, at one point in her travels with the Red Cross clubmobile, she found herself near Col. Fries and his tank brigade and spent one night with him hearing enemy artillery whizzing nearby.

When she was managing the Aerofleet Club, witnessed the initial aerial assault for D Day from the air. Mrs. Fries flew to London in a two person open cockpit plane piloted by navy captain “Sunshine Reed” leader of the flying squadrons at Dunkeswell on club business. Returning at sunset in the plane, she saw what appeared to her to be thousands of planes in the sky. She recalled it being “a breathtaking view” and soon learned that it was the beginning of the D-Day invasion.

She supported Col. Fries as a gracious, loving and engaging hostess through his many tours of duty both in the United States and around the world after the war both for the army and The Boeing Company and, at the same time, pursued her interest in travel, American history and family genealogy. She made it her mission to share her wealth of family history with her younger relatives and made family history come alive. She was active in the National Society of Colonial Dames, the Daughters of American Colonists, the Eastern Shore of Virginia Historical Society, the Army Navy Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. On one tour in Washington, DC she served on the inaugural committee for President Eisenhower. She was also an active participant in the Women’s Committee of the National Symphony Orchestra, the Army-Navy Club, and Washington Club.

She and Col. Fries resided in Huntsville, Alabama for his last assignment with Boeing. Eventually, they moved to Knollwood in Washington, DC, where Mrs. Fries received the blessing of years of special care and attention from her niece Carol McCaffrey and her husband David. In addition to their gratitude to Carol and David, Mrs. Fries family is grateful to Helda Zapata Gomez, Nelly Villarreal, Nahir Villarreal, Elizabeth Adigun, and Cruz Sanchez of Nelly’s Nurse’s Care Services for the personal care and attention they provided Mrs. Fries during her last years at Knollwood and to the many excellent doctors, nurses and other medical personnel at Walter Reed for their services both to her and Colonel Fries.

Her parents, Harwood Syme Haynes and Alice Virginia Hobson, Arlington , Va., her sisters Mrs. P. Elmo Battle (Alice) and Miss Marjorie S. Haynes of Northern Va., and her nephew Leslie Wells (Deborah), Vancouver, Wa. predeceased her. She is survived by her niece Carol Merritt McCaffrey (David), Annandale, Va., her cousins Henry Lakin Parr, Jr. (Lillian), Greenville, SC, and Lucille Wallace Robbins (Bob), Hudson, NH, her godchildren John C. Williams, III (Julie) Arlington, Va., and Tracey Sutton Copperthwaite (Peter), Portola Valley, CA in addition to many other nieces, nephews, cousins and dear friends. Mrs. Fries especially enjoyed Virginia history and was the great, great, granddaughter of Henry A. Wise, governor of Virginia 1856-1860 and a direct descendant of General John Cropper, who served on George Washington’s staff in the Revolutionary War.

Burial services led by Mrs. Fries’s cousin, Rev. Jennings Wise Hobson III of Washington, Va. will be in Arlington National Cemetery at the earliest possible time. Memorials may be made to the Army Distaff Foundation, 6200 Oregon Ave NW, Washington, DC 20015.