Sidney A Frerking

Sidney Aileen “Mickey” Moore Frerking, a native of Seguin and longtime public elementary school teacher, died peacefully on Sunday, July 12, in San Antonio after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s. She was 80 years old.

Teacher, church choir member, wife, mother, grandmother and friend to so many, Mickey was a vibrant and independent woman who passed on her love of reading, writing, learning and music to her two daughters and four grandchildren as well as to hundreds of former elementary school students in South Texas.

Mickey’s husband of nearly 44 years, Patrick H. Frerking, preceded her in death on Jan. 7, 1999. Both Mickey and Pat were born and grew up in Seguin, and the two were married at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church on April 23, 1955. Survivors include daughters Beth Frerking and husband David Wood, Silver Spring, Maryland, and Meg (Frerking) and Jim Grant, San Antonio. Four grandchildren survive her: Meg’s children, James and wife Callie (Hayes) Grant, Dallas, and Lara Grant, New York City; and Beth’s sons, Matthew and Evan Reese, Silver Spring, Maryland.

The only child of John and Margaret Moore, Mickey was born on September 30, 1934, at the Moore’s family home on Johnson Street in Seguin. The Victorian home was built in 1895 by her grandfather, newspaperman and civic leader John Moore, and is now a historic home. Mickey grew up there with her parents, her paternal grandmother and her uncle, Roger Moore, a former mayor of Seguin. She later served as a docent when the Moore House, acquired and operated by the Seguin Conservation Society, opened for tours and luncheons.

Frerking was baptized, confirmed and married at St. Andrew’s Episcopal, where she sang in the choir as a child and as adult when Mickey and Pat returned to Seguin in 1978. The church was her spiritual home. For many years in her youth, she attended Camp Capers, a sprawling Hill Country camp operated by the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas. Mickey made lifelong friends at Camp Capers, including Diana (Dugat) Braly of Beeville and Jane (Maxwell) Adams of Sugar Land, Texas. ]

Mickey taught elementary school, primarily the fifth grade, for nearly 30 years in Alice, Karnes City, and, for the last two decades of her career, at McQueeney Elementary near Seguin. Mickey served as an active member of Delta Kappa Gamma retired teachers’ association, including a term as president of the Theta Kappa Chapter in Seguin from 1996-98. She also was a longtime member of the Texas State Teachers Association. Mickey was a lifelong Democrat.

She loved teaching and her students, and especially enjoyed seeing them years later as adults. She kept up with several favorites, including Anna Holmgreen of Alice, who became a public school teacher.

When she was named “Teacher of the Year” at McQueeney Elementary for the 1991-92 school year, Mickey wrote about how hearing her parents and grandparents read to her as a child had instilled a lifelong love of language and poetry. She recalled hearing her father read aloud from Jack London’s “Call of the Wild” and told how her paternal grandmother “introduced me to the beauty and richness of the King James Bible” and the liturgy of the Episcopal Church.

“As I review my teaching career, I feel certain my students will remember the stories, poems and essays they have written while the memory of drills and skills will be forgotten,” she wrote. “I hope they will recall with pride their recitations of Travis’ Letter from the Alamo and Longfellow’s ‘Paul Revere’s Ride.’ I hope they will once again feel the tranquility of Hiawatha’s forest—and will pass it on.”

Mickey graduated from Seguin High School in 1953. Earlier, in 1950, she was the first Guadalupe County Fair Queen. She attended Texas Lutheran College in Seguin her freshman year, the University of Texas at Austin her sophomore year, and then left college to get married and have her daughters. She completed her college studies at Texas A&I University in Kingsville, Texas, where she graduated summa cum laude in 1968 with a bachelor of science in elementary education.

Mickey was preceded in death by husband Pat; her parents, John and Margaret Moore of Seguin; sister-in-law Thelma Lowy of Victoria; and brothers-in-law Otto Charles Frerking, Jr., and Joe Frerking, of Seguin; and first cousin John William Bauer of Boerne.

In addition to her two daughters, four grandchildren and granddaughter-in-law, Mickey is survived by step-grandchildren Natalie (Grant) Glickman and husband Steven, and Warren Grant and wife, Sandy, who all live in the Dallas area.

She also leaves behind a first cousin, Sydney Bauer, who was like a brother to her, and his wife, Dorothy Bauer, of Seguin; cousin Susan Vernor Smith, of Fort Worth; and numerous favorite younger cousins who were like nieces and nephews to her: Julie Bauer Khuzami and husband Robert Khuzami, Washington, D.C.; Meade and wife Ann Bauer, Austin; Mark and wife Susan Bauer, San Antonio; John William “Dub” Bauer, Jr., Clayton, Georgia; Cary and wife Laurie Bauer, Bastrop; Kate Bauer Palanica and husband Bill Palanica, Charlotte, North Carolina; Sherry and husband Doug Bowersock, Sugar Land; Tina and husband Mike Clanton, Mansfield, Texas; Jay and wife Cindy Frerking, Mission Viejo, California; Pam and husband Wayne Gilbreath, Apex, North Carolina; and Shirley and husband Mike Simpson, Victoria, Texas; and lifelong friend Sarah Batey Edwards.

A memorial service is scheduled for Friday, August 7th, 10:30 a.m., at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Seguin, Texas. Immediately following the service will be a luncheon reception at the Moore House, at 703 Johnson Street in Seguin.

The family has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be given to St. Andrew's Episcopal Church (www.standrewseguin.org), the Alzheimer's Association (www.alz.org) or the Seguin Conservation Society (www.seguinconservation.org).