LeRoy Fred (Fritz) Penner

LeRoy Fred (Fritz) Penner, age 89, of Aurora, died Friday morning, September 23, 2005, at Hamilton Manor in Aurora.

Funeral Services will be held 10:30 A.M., Monday, September 26 at the United Methodist Church in Aurora. Rev. Richard Karohl will officiate. Interment will be in the Aurora Cemetery. Visitation will be from 4 to 7 P.M. Sunday at Higby-McQuiston Mortuary. Condolences may be e-mailed to the family through the mortuary website at higbymortuary.com.

OBITUARY: LE ROY FRED "FRITZ" PENNER

LeRoy Fred "Fritz" Penner, the son of Fred and Genevieve (Austin) Penner, was born in Stockham, Nebraska on June 17, 1916 and died in Aurora, Nebraska on September 23, 2005, at the age of 89.

He grew up in Stockham and attended school at Stockham until the 10th grade. He jumped freight trains in Kansas, Arkansas, Oregon, and Missouri. Fritz, Ernie and Festus VanDusen, and Ezra Gellanty stopped at Hobo camps as they had no money. They would stop and work for money which was $2 per day.

In 1940, Fritz enlisted in the Army. He was in boot camp at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri. He was sent to Hawaii, and then spent 3 years in the Philippines. He went to Dutch New Guinea and Maloney Bay. Fritz returned home in 1948.

On August 20, 1948, he was united in marriage to Phyllis Gwendolyn Cass and they lived all of their married life in Aurora, Nebraska. Gwen passed away on November 28, 1993.

Fritz drove a truck for the county and then he was a Line Foreman for the Telephone Company for 34 years.

Fritz was a member of the Aurora United Methodist Church and the Vets Club.

He was preceded in death by his parents, wife, a brother Ernie, and a sister, Thelma Fenster.

Those left to cherish his memory are his two sons, Steve (Dee) of North Platte, Nebraska and Mike (Stephanie) of Aurora; two sisters, Dorothy Newlun and Anne Medaris, both of Aurora; two brothers, Curly (Betty) Penner of Aurora and Melvin "Jake" (Elaine) Penner of Grand Island, Nebraska; six grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.