Ethel Bernadine Fritz was born on November 30, 1923 on the farm northeast of Arcadia, Iowa, the daughter of Herman Henkenius and his wife Anna (Nees) Henkenius. She received her gift of eternal life in the glory of Heaven on February 22, 2016 as a resident of the Avoca Nursing and Rehab Center of Avoca, Iowa. Ethel was 92 years, 2 months, and 23 days old.

She was baptized into the Christian faith at St. John's Catholic Church in Arcadia, Iowa.

Ethel attended country school in the Carroll, Iowa area and finally St. Francis Parochial School in Maple River, Iowa where she graduated from the eighth grade. She moved with her family to the Olberding, Laugel, and Lappe farms in the Carrroll, Iowa area before moving with her family in March of 1939 to the farm purchased by her father south of Massena, Iowa.

Besides helping her father on the farm, she also worked for several families in the Massena area, for the Massena School, and for the Massena Grocery Store. In the fall of 1947 she moved to Omaha, Nebraska, with her sister Irene where she worked for the Robinson Ready to Wear Store. After Irene's marriage in 1949 she moved to Atlantic, Iowa where she worked for three and one-half years for the J.C. Penney Store.

On May 30, 1953, Ethel married Donald Fritz at the St. Paul Lutheran Parsonage in Oakland. They made their first home east of Hancock, Iowa for six years. In 1959 they moved to the farm northwest of Oakland where she continued to live until November of 2014 when she became a resident of the Oakland Manor Nursing Home, and then the Avoca Nursing and Rehab Center in Avoca, Iowa.

Ethel was a home maker and helped her husband on the family farm. She became a member of St. Paul Lutheran Church, Oakland, Iowa in January of 1954. She taught Sunday School and Vacation Bible School for many years. She also served on the Altar Guild, sewed quilt tops and tied quilts for Lutheran World Relief. She enjoyed gardening, planting flowers and raising chickens which she called her pets.

Ethel is preceded in death by her parents: Herman and Anna; by her husband Donald in 2000; by her two brothers: Kenneth and Donald Henkenius; by her sister and brother-in-law Irene Klahn and husband Howard; and by her brother-in-law Lyle Schaaf.

She is survived by her three children: Rev. Rodney Fritz of Hanover, Kansas; Sheryl Bald and her husband David of Oakland; Jolene and her husband Rick of Oakland. She is survived by her two granddaughters: Allison Hay of Omaha, Nebraska, and Lisa Hay of Council Bluffs, Iowa. She is survived by her sister; Norma Schaaf of Massena, Iowa; and her sister-in-law Jean Henkenius of Cumberland, Iowa. She is also survived by her many nieces, nephews, relatives and friends.