In Memory of

Anthony

Frioni

Obituary for Anthony Frioni

Anthony J. Frioni, December 27, 1925 – August 6, 2018. In 1962. Tony traveled from Dallas to Blooming Grove, Texas where he met his future wife. This 90 minute trip south of Dallas was taken after his travels from Lowber, Pennsylvania, where he was born, to Europe, where he fought in WWII and the Aleutian Islands, where he was stationed during the Korean Conflict and back to the USA ending his worldly travels in Dallas, where he ran the print shops for East Texas Motor Freight (24 ½ years) and Southwest Airlines (5 years).
Tony, the first son of Antonio and Chelsea also called Celesta (Canepele) Frioni, spent much of his childhood roaming the woods of Lowber, PA. One thing he enjoyed was trapping animals for their skins. He would earn money by sending the skins to Sears and Roebuck. His favorite story was of sending a skunk skin to Sears for which he received a check for 10 cents.
After joining the Army at age 18, he was sent to England to prepare for the fighting. He told two wartime stories. One incident happened one night while he was in a foxhole. He was so tired he crawled out of the hole, stretched out on the ground and fell sound asleep. When he woke up broken branches and leaves were around him. He had slept through a bombardment, even though his foxhole buddies where trying to wake him. The second story has a more serious outcome. Traveling to the frontline in a half track filled with soldiers, the driver ran into a bomb crater causing the truck to turn over. Tony landed on bottom of the pile of soldiers, causing a serious back injury. Recovery took three months in a France hospital. He was released the day the war ended. As a Tech 4 Inf., he spent the rest of his time in Germany, taking part in the reconstruction. Time spent in the Air Force as a Staff Sergeant during the Korean Conflict was calm but extremely cold.
He is preceded in death by his brother little Tommy, sister Lena, sister Emily and her husband Bill, sister Olympia and her husband Nick, sister Mary and her husband Clint. Tony is survived by his wife of 55 years, Barbara; children, LaGail Fern (Michael Scott Sr.) and Michael Anthony (Sandra); grandchildren, Chelsea (Christopher), Michael Scott Jr. and Sofia Grace; brothers, Lou and Clarence; sisters, Gloria (John), Nora (Max), and Patty (Frank). Uncle Tony was proud of his many nieces and nephews and their families in Texas, Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. Also grieving are members of his Texas family, the Grounds’, with whom he spent much time fishing, playing 42 and sharing meals with. Memorials may be made to Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, 2505 W. Northgate, Irving, TX 75062 or to St. Jude Children’s Hospital at https://www.stjude.org/ then clicking donate.
The family will receive friends between 6:00 and 8:00pm, Wednesday, August 8, 2018 at Brown’s Memorial Funeral Home, 707 N. Macarthur Blvd. in Irving. A funeral service will be held 1:30pm, Thursday, August 9, 2018 at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, 2505 W. Northgate, in Irving. A graveside service with Military Honors will be held 11:00am, Friday August 10, 2018 at Dallas Fort Worth National Cemetery, 2000 Mountain Creek Pkwy in Dallas. Please arrive and line up in lane #1 by 10:45am.