Charles F. Phelps

Fritz was my uncle. My father was his older brother. He had an older sister Rosemary. He grew up in Clinton ILL. His mother Louise died in 1938 when he was only 12 years old. This had to be very hard on a boy that young. When he graduated high school in 1944 he and some of his buddies joined the air force. When he was discharged from the air force he came to Peoria ILL and my dad helped him get a job with the T.P.& W Railroad. For some reason at the last moment he decided not to join the railroad and the next thing we knew he had joined the state police. My being only 7 at the time I do not know the details. He and Kathy for many years enjoyed going to AZ and visiting his sister Rosemary in the summer. Uncle Fritz and my dad as I recall were not that close. I guess being 8 years difference in age was the reason because there was never a bad word between them. In the last 6 or 7 years of my dads life they had started visiting back and forth. The last time I saw Uncle Fritz was when he came to my dads funeral. After I retired I wanted to reconnect with him and upon visiting at his home in Springfield found out his wife Kathy had died the previous year. He told be a lot of stories of the two of them growing up in Clinton. After that visit I made it a point to call him once a month to check on him. I told him I regretted not being closer over the years but life sometimes gets in the way of things. He seemed to understand. The last call I made was Jan. 2, 2018. A man answered and I asked if Fritz was there. He said he was the son-in-law and that he had come to take him to the Doctor and found him dead in his chair. Being he was 91 I guess that is good as it gets. Dying in the comfort of your own home and in your favorite chair. I remember him as a quiet, easy going, good-looking, ramrod straight man. The perfection of the State Trooper he was.