Ursula (Frauendorf) Lorenz

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Biography

Ursula Frauendorf was born on June 12, 1919, to Auguste Pauline Lübeck, age 35, and Paul Herrmann Frauendorf, age 30.

Immigration: Departure 01 Oct 1924 • Bremen, Bremen, Germany Arrival Aboard The Columbus from Bremen 10 Oct 1924 • New York, New York, USA

Naturalization 24 Jan 1930 • Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA

Diploma Alexander Hamilton High School 04 Feb 1938 • Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA

Marriage William Lorenz 1909–1991 25 Feb 1942 • Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA

Children Her daughter Madeleine Ursula was born on December 17, 1943, in Los Angeles, California.

Her daughter Patricia was born in Los Angeles, California (date private).

Death Ursula Frauendorf died on May 8, 2012, in Spokane, Washington, when she was 92 years old.

Interesting tidbits of remembrance:

Ursula's favorite comfort breakfast food was a poached egg on milk toast. This involves slicing buttered toast into small squares and putting it in a bowl, topped with a poached egg and hot milk.

As a young mom, Ursula had a breakfast schedule for what she would make each day of the week. Her daughter Patricia remembers that one of the family favorites in the schedule was liverwurst on toast dipped in coffee! Poached eggs on milk toast (see above) and cereal were also in the rotation. Saturday mornings were rolls crisped up in the oven with jam, and coffee to drink.

Her husband Bill worked late into the evenings at home working on watch repair orders. He would take a coffee break around 10 pm and come out and he and Ursula would have something sweet together that she had made and talk and drink coffee together.

Ursula and Bill greatly enjoyed hiking. Taking walks was a frequent activity as a young family, and they continued hiking regularly for as long as Bill was physically able. One spot they loved to go back to again and again was Montaña de Oro State Park in Los Osos, California.

Ursula backpacked across England on the Coast to Coast trail (St. Bees on the Irish Sea to Robin Hood's Bay on the North Sea) at the age of 81!

Other memorable travel experiences in Ursula's life include a cross-country Amtrak ride with Bill from California to NJ to visit their daughter. Probably the most beloved and memorable journey was going to Germany together in the seventies. They only visited what was Western Germany at the time, as visiting the East would have been far too challenging. Ursula long recalled afterwards the smallest details of this vacation, which was probably one of the most enjoyable and carefree experiences of their lives.

As a beautiful young woman, Ursula danced and played the castanets (and the piano, but due to a very strict and unpleasant teacher, she didn't gain a lifelong love for it). She would dress up and dance at parties hosted by her parents for the German Mandolin Club her father was part of in Los Angeles. Despite having a shy and introverted personality, Ursula had many suitors that her family is glad she didn't marry. She met Bill at a German picnic while he was visiting from Chicago. They struck up a correspondence which led to falling in love and marriage... and two beautiful little girls.

When the family was young, Ursula's father Paul Frauendorf alternated living with her or her sister Ilse. Bill worked in partnership with Paul's watchmaking and repair business and then took over the business after Paul. Ursula was not terribly enthusiastic about her husband going into her father's trade, but it did support the family for many years.

Sources

• Lorenz family records