Ardis Fratt Post

At 19, Ardis married John Leroy Sinner, who owned a dairy and a shopping center in Portland, Oregon. They were married 11 years and had two children, Corinne Allison and Dean Louis.

A marriage at age 33 to Charles Diller Fratt III followed. Charles (Chuzz) had three children from a previous marriage: Laura Elizabeth, Virginia Lee and Charles Fredrick.

In 1966, Chuzz bought a wholesale building-supply business, PlyWorld Corporation, in Orlando, Florida. Thus, Ardis, Chuzz, Corinne and Dean moved from Portland to Orlando.

Ardis was active in community affairs. She sat on the boards of the Florida Symphony Orchestra, the Orlando Museum of Art, the Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins College and the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Ardis was one of the founders of PESO (Participation Enriches Science, Music, and Art Organizations). PESO was the first joint cultural fundraising venture in the greater Orlando community, serving four major institutions: Florida Symphony Orchestra, Loch Haven Art Center, John Young Museum and Planetarium, and the Central Florida Civic Theater. It was also among the vanguard of the movement to raise charitable funds through dinner auctions. The “first ever” dinner auction was held in Portland, the second in San Diego, and the third by PESO in Orlando, as reported by Time in 1968. Dinner auctions are now ubiquitous in the realm of fundraising.

In addition to raising her family and participating in civic affairs, Ardis was an avid boater. She and Chuzz spent much time aboard the various boats they owned over the years, sailing in the Caribbean and the Bahamas and cruising from Florida to Maine. Later, they kept a boat in New Zealand and sailed to various island groups in the South Pacific and Japan.

Chuzz succumbed to lung cancer in 1995. In 1997, Ardis married retired Major General Alton (Al) Post of Carmel, California. Her marriage to General Post extended her blended family with the addition of his two children, Christopher Post and Patti Dean. Ardis and Al began a migratory life, spending summers in Carmel and winters in Winter Park.

Ardis was preceded in death by her father and mother, John and Pauline Singer, all six of her siblings and her stepdaughter Laura Tyrrell. She is survived by her children Corinne Fratt Cantu, Dean Fratt, her stepchildren, sixteen grandchildren, and thirteen great grandchildren.

Ardis was a practicing and devout member of All Saints Episcopal Church in Winter Park from 1966 until her passing. There will be a memorial service for her at All Saints on February 9th at 2:00 p.m. with a reception at the church following the service. If one should so desire, memorial gifts may be made to All Saints Episcopal Church.