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Garland Dewey Fronabarger

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Garland Dewey Fronabarger

Birth
Oak Ridge, Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, USA
Death
21 Nov 1992 (aged 88)
Cape Girardeau, Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, USA
Burial
Cape Girardeau, Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, USA Add to Map
Memorial ID
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Former Southeast Missourian's Garland Dewey "Frony" Fronabarger (aka: "One Shot Frony"), was posthumously inducted into Missouri Photojournalism Hall of Fame on May 30, 2017.

**

Garland Fronabarger: Thanks For The Memories

For more than six decades, Garland D. Fronabarger lived for the news. After joining the Southeast Missourian in 1927, he chronicled people and places and events through photographs and articles. Even after his retirement in 1986, he made frequent visits to the newspaper to chat with the staff. It was hard for him not to chase a good lead.

But as he lived for the news, so his death Saturday made the news because of the many lives he had touched. We will miss Frony. He was a friend, and a respected colleague. He helped pioneer news photography in Southeast Missouri. As a reporter, he seemed at home with presidents and common folk alike. He was sometimes cantankerous, always colorful, and forever curious. He had the right stuff for a good newspaperman.

Over the years, he watched both the newspaper and the region grow, and reported on that growth in his weekly business column. A loyal worker, Fronabarger also loved his time off, especially if it could be spent in the great outdoors. But even his spare time came full circle as he wrote a popular column called "Hook, Line and Sinker" for many years, based on his experiences as an avid fisherman and outdoorsman.

His stirring photographs appeared in many national publications as well as the daily pages of the Southeast Missourian. His color shots of the 10-mile rose garden, which once connected Cape Girardeau and Jackson, were the first color photographs to be published in Readers Digest.

Frony always told the best stories, and oftentimes they were colorful tales that he lived. Who could forget his narrations of the great lion hunt, the times he sat on the bench with the St. Louis Browns, or his attempt to photograph a tornado from the roof of the Marquette Hotel? The memories bring smiles. He seemed to get into the darnedest predicaments, and loved to make the most of them. That was just his way.

Fronabarger is gone, but his image remains with us poised with a camera and notebook, with a cigar clenched between his teeth, he was constantly sniffing out the news. What was Frony really like? Perhaps former Southeast Missourian librarian Judith Ann Crow said it best in an article she wrote in 1967. The occasion was his 40th year at the newspaper. She described her long-time colleague in this way: "G.D. Fronabarger is a big, blustery, tender, infuriating, egotistical, witty, deeply kind man. A man fully worthy of all the conflicting emotions he elicits anger, admiration, frustration, love, respect. Above all, respect."

It's that respect we pay today to a man who willingly committed his life to the betterment and growth of the people and the region through his cameras and typewriter. Farewell Frony. Thanks for the memories.

Credit: Southeast Missourian, Cape Girardeau, Missouri
Monday, November 23, 1992 ~ Editorial, Page 6A

**

Dec 7, 1951, the book "Legends and Lore of Missouri" by Dr. Earl Augustus Collins (#169110380) with photos by legendary Southeast Missourian reporter & photographer, Garland Dewey "Frony" Fronabarger, was published, by The Naylor Co., San Antonio. Collins was a historian-Author, State College history department faculty member (1938 - ca 1960), and widely known author of school textbooks, historical and folklore books on his native Missouri. I found both men lived in Cape Girardeau and according to numerous newspaper accounts, both were heavily involved in the Kiwanis Club. According to Collins' obit: "Dr. Collins was a charter member of the Cape Girardeau Kiwanis Club. He served many times as a member of the club's board, was the club's president, was lieutenant-governor and in 1952 was governor of the Missouri-Arkansas District. He became district secretary in 1956. serving 9000 Kiwanians in 176 clubs, and held that office at the time of his death. Also he was editor of "The Kiwanigram," the district's magazine." So this may be how the two men met and collaborated on the book. This book is virtually impossible to find, but is cited in bibliographies. It's not on Internet Archive but, surprisingly, I just found a copy of it in a similar format someone had uploaded on Family Search, which you can read for free. I wonder if the Cape Girardeau UFO crash is in the book, since Frony, allegedly, took at least one photo of an alien there.
Former Southeast Missourian's Garland Dewey "Frony" Fronabarger (aka: "One Shot Frony"), was posthumously inducted into Missouri Photojournalism Hall of Fame on May 30, 2017.

**

Garland Fronabarger: Thanks For The Memories

For more than six decades, Garland D. Fronabarger lived for the news. After joining the Southeast Missourian in 1927, he chronicled people and places and events through photographs and articles. Even after his retirement in 1986, he made frequent visits to the newspaper to chat with the staff. It was hard for him not to chase a good lead.

But as he lived for the news, so his death Saturday made the news because of the many lives he had touched. We will miss Frony. He was a friend, and a respected colleague. He helped pioneer news photography in Southeast Missouri. As a reporter, he seemed at home with presidents and common folk alike. He was sometimes cantankerous, always colorful, and forever curious. He had the right stuff for a good newspaperman.

Over the years, he watched both the newspaper and the region grow, and reported on that growth in his weekly business column. A loyal worker, Fronabarger also loved his time off, especially if it could be spent in the great outdoors. But even his spare time came full circle as he wrote a popular column called "Hook, Line and Sinker" for many years, based on his experiences as an avid fisherman and outdoorsman.

His stirring photographs appeared in many national publications as well as the daily pages of the Southeast Missourian. His color shots of the 10-mile rose garden, which once connected Cape Girardeau and Jackson, were the first color photographs to be published in Readers Digest.

Frony always told the best stories, and oftentimes they were colorful tales that he lived. Who could forget his narrations of the great lion hunt, the times he sat on the bench with the St. Louis Browns, or his attempt to photograph a tornado from the roof of the Marquette Hotel? The memories bring smiles. He seemed to get into the darnedest predicaments, and loved to make the most of them. That was just his way.

Fronabarger is gone, but his image remains with us poised with a camera and notebook, with a cigar clenched between his teeth, he was constantly sniffing out the news. What was Frony really like? Perhaps former Southeast Missourian librarian Judith Ann Crow said it best in an article she wrote in 1967. The occasion was his 40th year at the newspaper. She described her long-time colleague in this way: "G.D. Fronabarger is a big, blustery, tender, infuriating, egotistical, witty, deeply kind man. A man fully worthy of all the conflicting emotions he elicits anger, admiration, frustration, love, respect. Above all, respect."

It's that respect we pay today to a man who willingly committed his life to the betterment and growth of the people and the region through his cameras and typewriter. Farewell Frony. Thanks for the memories.

Credit: Southeast Missourian, Cape Girardeau, Missouri
Monday, November 23, 1992 ~ Editorial, Page 6A

**

Dec 7, 1951, the book "Legends and Lore of Missouri" by Dr. Earl Augustus Collins (#169110380) with photos by legendary Southeast Missourian reporter & photographer, Garland Dewey "Frony" Fronabarger, was published, by The Naylor Co., San Antonio. Collins was a historian-Author, State College history department faculty member (1938 - ca 1960), and widely known author of school textbooks, historical and folklore books on his native Missouri. I found both men lived in Cape Girardeau and according to numerous newspaper accounts, both were heavily involved in the Kiwanis Club. According to Collins' obit: "Dr. Collins was a charter member of the Cape Girardeau Kiwanis Club. He served many times as a member of the club's board, was the club's president, was lieutenant-governor and in 1952 was governor of the Missouri-Arkansas District. He became district secretary in 1956. serving 9000 Kiwanians in 176 clubs, and held that office at the time of his death. Also he was editor of "The Kiwanigram," the district's magazine." So this may be how the two men met and collaborated on the book. This book is virtually impossible to find, but is cited in bibliographies. It's not on Internet Archive but, surprisingly, I just found a copy of it in a similar format someone had uploaded on Family Search, which you can read for free. I wonder if the Cape Girardeau UFO crash is in the book, since Frony, allegedly, took at least one photo of an alien there.


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