Elizabeth was born in Frankfort Germany in 1930. After many years of fleeing the Nazi regime little Elizabeth learned to speak several language’s, she spoke fluent German and learned French after they were forced out of Germany, Elizabeth had to attend school in France. Fleeing the Nazi regime took little Elizabeth to many new countries. She lived through the bombings of Paris, concentration camps in Africa fleeing country to country with her family.

 Family was very important to Elizabeth, her brother Wolfgang Friedrich who was 4 years older reached for her hand while she was on the ground crying almost after being almost trampled to death by the children from her school while a bombing raid sent the children in a panic down the streets in France. Uncle Fred as we now call him took her to a bomb shelter where they could be reunited with their family. She learned that day the “friends may come and go but family was forever and a good family helpes each other in a crisis."

Elizabeth and her family got passage from Marseilles France on a rusty freighter to Martinique. The crew gave the family a sack and pointed to hay pile for their bed where they slept in the hull of the boat on a stack of hay for a bed. The freighter had to stop in Casablanca, Africa, but the French held the ship in the harbor for several weeks because some of the ships were carrying arms and the British were confiscating them. Passengers were not allowed to leave the ship. After several weeks dysentery broke out and the passengers were finally relocated to an internment camp in Morocco.    

After a few weeks they were finally able to seek passage on a Portuguese ship that would take them to America.  After arriving in New York what they thought was America the home of the free they found conditions Ellis Island to be horrific. Ellis Island which was more of a detention camp so many families, Elizabeth and her family were locked in a cell at night until her mother finally found a ship to take them to the Santa Domingo a week later where they were finally reunited with Elizabeth’s father for many years where her father worked helping refugees and he worked as a teacher at the university.

After finally living a normal life and finishing school in the Dominican Republic for 7 years Elizabeth and her family were forced to leave the Dominican Republic because the regime, which sent Elizabeth traveling alone to America for the first time at age 18 on a ship back to New York where she finally metup with her family and Walter her husband of many years.

 In 1953 Elizabeth finally because a citizen of the United states. It was a proud moment for her. She used to say “I had lived in many countries, but I am finally a citizen of one.” Despite problems in the USA it was the best country she ever lived in and was proud that her 5 boys could live in this great country. She raised her boys with self-sacrifice and unconditional love, to be respectful to others, to be independent and always be a family. She gave her boys encouragement when their luck was down and would say “On to better things”.  

The family moved to Michigan in 1956. Throughout her life Elizabeth had always held some type of leadership position. She was the founder of the American Field Service in Lance Creuse school district, President of the PTA for Atwood Elementary, and of her homeowners association and bowling league. She was a great role model for her children and a wonderful loving mother.

After missing the Caribbean’s for so long Elizabeth and her husband retired and moved to St. Lucia for the next 26 years, Elizabeth became president of the Ladies Club, and a mason to St Lucia by the U.S. State Department and wrote articles for a small newspaper called Tell-Lee-Gram. Elizabeth taught schools at a Catholic school for girls and organized Medevac operations for injured tourists who were vacationing in St. Lucia. She loved to sing in the St Lucia Choir and performed in front of Queen Elizabeth when she visited the Island. She worked for the FBI, the postal service and an orphanage to help children find homes.

 Elizabeth and her husband moved back to Michigan because they were getting older, Walter’s health was deteriorating and hospital care third world country was not the best. She missed her boys, their wives and grand children very much. Her family was more important to her than anything in the world. She loved every moment of them all being in the same room together and she took pride in everything they did and how much they accomplished. The family's favotire saying is french  "Malgre Tout" I"n Spite of It All" in English.