Please post the link to Frank's obituary page, if one is available...thanks.
Postcard from the Pines – Julie Berry Traynor
Marion Press – September 15, 2023
Gone too soon
When we were all kids, so long ago on Blevins Street, we did not give a thought to who we would be many years later, let alone how we would get there. For a short portion of our growing up time we had the luxury of being just kids, looking forward to what each summer day brought and what time we could go to the so-called swimming pool, below the dam. The pecking order depended upon your age and whose yard in which you played.
I’ve mailed a number of Postcards carrying Blevins Street stories low, these almost 25 years. And if you’ve read them, or are a native, you know the cast of characters, some of them personally.
Almost every summer my cousins, Frank and Sandy, came to stay at Grandma Berry’s for a week or two. This was a time of great joy and mayhem for us. We reveled in being family and together. This did not occur often. They lived in another state, and our visits were limited to holidays and the summer. Whatever the length of time we had, we were inseparable, for the most part. You know the formula for discontent is familiarity and numbers. There were three of us and we crammed a lot of play into a short time.
My cousins loved their time here, especially Frank. He considered Marion, Michigan his home. Grandma was here, his family was here, and his heart was always here. No matter where he lived in his life, this was home. He was happiest when his family lived here, which they did a couple of times. Frank attended Grandon School for 8th grade when their family lived in Winterfield, and attended 9th grade at MHS. Sandy, who started school here in 1955, was a member of MHS Class of 1964. And then Uncle Frank moved the family to Florida.
Frank came back to Michigan as often as he could through the years. He regularly came to spend Christmas with us in the 1980’s. Michigan’s autumn colors captured him in the ‘90’s and 20 years later he retired from Florida to Midland, Michigan. All of his southern friends thought he was nuts. He was tremendously happy with his decision and loved to post photos of autumn trees or snowfall, or even angry gray rain clouds for those in Florida.
This has been a sad day. Not only was it the 22nd anniversary of 9/11 and all that grief, but now it has become the passing day of my cousin, like a brother, Frank Berry.
He and I are but six months apart in age and we, along with his sister Sandy, and our oldest cousin, Jack Nevins, were the oldest grandchildren of Frank and Fern Berry. It seemed like years that it was just us. In reality it wasn’t so, but there was just enough time for us feel much older than Sandy and Frank’s siblings and all of our Toledo cousins. In fact, we are so spread out across years and time and miles, that most of us don’t know each other. That is a sad thing.
Frank Berry was born June 3, 1950, in Delaware, Ohio. He was the second of six children born to Frank and Jennie Berry.
He was always a mechanical wizard. He could fix many things from the time he was a kid. He also played the piano effortlessly, a natural gift. Our piano made smooth music under his fingers Mom and Grandma loved to listen to his tunes. . I struggled with lessons from Mrs. Austin and tortured our piano.
Frank understood radio and the workings of television and other electronic devices from the time he was a child. In fact, he became truly enamored with television after a 1955 visit to then channel 13, WWTV, in Cadillac. We appeared on a local kid’s show where we were each asked what we wanted to be and do. When it was Frank’s turn, and with big eyes, he pointed to the huge television camera and said, “I want to run one of those!” He was beyond thrilled when the camera man let him check it all out after the show. He had found his calling.
Frank was a natural. It was uncanny. He was a brilliant radio and television engineer and worked his way up through the ranks of small radio stations in Florida, and Michigan. He was a disc jockey and engineer at a well known station at the old Cypress Gardens in Winter Haven, Florida. When he retired it was from the FOX television, WTVT-13 on Tampa Bay, where he had been chief engineer and the administrator of the station’s large computer network for 20 years. For all of his accomplishments, he’d best like to be remembered as that really smart Berry kid from Marion, Michigan.
Frank Berry passed away on September 11, 2023 in Midland, Michigan. He is survived by his beloved and long-time partner and spouse, Raymond; his siblings, Sandy Berry, Beth Iasimone, and Jill Wells and his special niece Becky Wells LaBrie RN; and many nieces, nephews, and cousins. He was preceded by his parents and brothers Michael and Jackson; sisters Paula and Holly.
RIP my dear cousin Frank. You’re home to stay at last.
This week’s photo was a hard one to pick; I have a lot from our kid days. This perennial favorite is from Christmas 1954 and was taken in Aunt Lola’s Blevins Street living room. I am fortunate to have several to choose from. The common denominator in each is the look of pure joy on our faces and the twinkles in our eyes.
