Rev. Harold Lloyd Frick, 1923–2004

Born on 11 August 1923, in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Harold Lloyd Frick was the second child of Ralph Lee Frick Sr. and his wife Opal Leota Miller. Harold’s siblings were Ralph Lee Frick Jr, John Eugene Frick, Leota May (Frick) Rubin, Vernon Harris Frick, Daniel Lee Frick, and one living sister.

In 1925, the family moved to St Louis. His mother said they loaded their belongings on a barge and had them brought upriver to St. Louis. The family settled into their Warren Street home and began attending St. Paul Methodist Church. All of the children were baptized at St. Paul. Harold and his sister attended the same confirmation class, under the direction of Rev. J. E. Fulkerson, and were baptized on 12 April 1936.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Harold enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1943 and served in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. He was discharged in 1945.

On 23 March 1946, Harold married Adora “Dodie” McLemore, the daughter of Milton Edington McLemore and his wife Marion Jennie Smith at Stephan Memorial Methodist Church in Overland. Dodie had two brothers, Milton Edington McLemore Jr. and Guy Enoch McLemore. Harold and Dodie were the parents of five children and three foster children.

Harold began working at Ford Motor Company’s St. Louis Assembly Plant in Hazelwood and the family moved to the newly chartered Village of Hazelwood. Harold served in both the volunteer fire department and volunteer police department. The family became members of Florissant Valley Baptist Church. Harold and several men began a new mission, and, as a result, he and his family were all charter members of Hazelwood Baptist Church. He was ordained as a deacon and also served as a Sunday school teacher and choir member. He studied for the ministry at Brooke’s Bible Institute.

In 1962, he was ordained as a minister at New Chapel Hill Baptist Church in Sullivan. The family moved to Union, and Harold served this church and continued to commute to the St Louis plant in Hazelwood. While living in Union, he ministered to New Chapel Hill Baptist, Virginia Mines Baptist, and Prospect Baptist. He was also an avid runner and earned many medals in various community races.

Harold and Dodie moved to Gambrill Gardens Senior Housing in Ellisville in 2000. They attended Ellisville Baptist Church and sang in the Gambrill Gardens Choir. He passed away on 1 April 2004 in Ellisville. Burial for Harold and his wife, Dodie (1928–2016), occurred at Virginia Mines Baptist Cemetery in Lonedell.

Harold was a member of the United Auto Workers’ Union 325 for more than thirty years, and he was a member of the Franklin County Ministerial Alliance.

Sources: interview with family members; marriage license; Missouri United Methodist Church records, 1856–1970; St. Louis Post Dispatch Index 1880–2002; U.S. census; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Burials Death File, 1850–2010, and the Washington Missourian, obituary.

Written by Cathie Lynn Frick Jarvis
February 2017

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