Freda Aron 1915-2013: Thanks for the Memory

When we learned last week that Freda Aron was in hospice care, and then in Friday’s Sentinel that she had died, the sorrow was short-lived. As regular listeners of “The Frankie and Freda Show” will recall, Freda was comfortable with her mortality, and — while fully engaged with this life — was more than just a little giddy about what awaited her in the next. She had two names on her dance card in heaven: her husband Richard Aron and Frank Sinatra. Only Freda knows who got the first dance!

Besides hosting a weekly show, Freda recorded regular commentaries for KCAW. Her last, from the autumn of 2011, is here.

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Although her topic changed regularly, from the war in Iraq to corporate personhood, her theme was consistent: This nation and its leaders are only as good as the outcomes they produce; all the chest-thumping in the world can not help a single-mother living in poverty, or immunize a child.

But her outrage at injustice and criticism of politics were tempered by an all-out joy in just about everything else. She doled it out liberally, like candy at a parade. Joy made her fearless, and makes her absence easier to bear.