Tracey Lee Fritsch

Tracey Lee Fritsch, age 64, passed away unexpectedly on April 22, 2022. She was born on July 22, 1957 in St. Clair Shores, Michigan to Joseph and Martha Zuzul. Her family moved to Joplin, Missouri when she was just one year old, where she attended Kelsey Norman Elementary, South Jr High and Parkwood High School. At Parkwood, she was active in Speech & Debate and Theatre and partnered with her future husband, Andy Fritsch, in a few debate tournaments. After graduating, she attended three semesters at Missouri Southern State College in Joplin. The summer after her freshman year, she and Andy began dating and the following school year she transferred to the University of Tulsa to be near him. Tracey majored in Special Education and they both received their degrees in December of 1978.

Over the course of the next whirlwind four weeks, they moved back home, had Christmas with their families, got married, had a blizzard and a honeymoon, moved to Houston, found a place to live, and began their careers. In the Summer of 1980, they bought their first house in a new neighborhood that had recently been a rice field at the edge of the Houston sprawl, two miles outside of Highway 6 which was a two-lane asphalt road at the time.

What many of you know, but some of you may not know, is that Tracey was an amazing teacher. Initially, Tracey taught elementary Special Ed in Spring Branch ISD for 2 years and Katy ISD for one year before taking time off to start her family. When their daughters were about two years old, Tracey began helping out at the preschool of a small church (Cornerstone UMC) where the girls went two mornings a week. After a year, they asked her to lead the preschool and under Tracey’s leadership it was soon running 5 days a week with over 200 kids and financing most of the new church building.

She ran the preschool for about 10 years until she retired to be able to have a little more time with the girls. After a couple of years, she was ready to go back to teaching, applied to Cy-Fair and signed up for a Job Fair they were holding. When she got to the Job Fair, a principle who had read her special ed resume was waiting at the door to pounce on her. She taught special ed for a couple of years and then she moved back to regular class rooms that had special needs kids. She loved teaching quirky kids and especially 4th and 5th graders because by that age the kids were old enough to have their own personalities. She had the unique ability to make almost every kid, no matter how troubled or troublesome, want to do well for her and for themselves. Her preference was to teach Reading and Science but that wasn’t usually how the schedule worked. Later she developed a love for teaching writing.

She worked for a few years at the district level as a “helping teacher” or coach working on curriculum, advising teachers and schools, etc. However after two years, she went back to working in the classroom to be closer to the kids, first as a helping teacher and then, where she really wanted to be, back in the classroom. After about 35 years of working in preschool and elementary school, she had taught thousands of kids and remembered virtually all of them when they would occasionally see her in a store or restaurant.

In her youth, she was a very active girl scout and achieved the gold award. She loved to camp and went to girl scout camp every summer, sometimes multiple sessions and was a camp counselor while she was in high school. As a mom, she led Lauren’s and Sarah’s scout troops and was a service unit leader for a period. She also helped run a day camp almost every summer.

Tracey was very smart in a practical kind of way. She was forever trying to educate her husband in a thousand little ways to make life simpler. One of the best examples of her practical smarts is car-rider pickup. Whether it was girl scout camp or pre-school or elementary school, she could get more kids, loaded into more cars, faster, more safely and with fewer hassles than anyone else.

Tracey always enjoyed both crafts and nature and devoted much time to these in her retirement. She became an avid quilter and bird watcher. She loved to design and make quilts and was active in the Golden Needles Quilt Guild, Panorama Piece Corps Bee and the Sew Sisters Group of First Methodist Conroe. She loved to bird watch and to take pictures of birds and nature both out in the woods and around the neighborhood. Once or twice, she was reported as a suspicious women going around the neighborhood taking pictures. She was very active at First Methodist Conroe in the Wednesday Women’s Bible study and the Pairs and Spares Sunday School Class.

Since retiring from teaching, she has been the ultimate NaNa to her three grandsons. She loved those boys and doted on them and they loved her. Almost every weekend, they would come to “NanaPapa’s house” and spent many Friday nights with non-stop elaborate ice cream sundaes, cookie baking, games, popcorn and movies, science investigation in the woods, swimming in the pool, etc. When they would leave the following evening, Andy and Tracey would be exhausted but she loved every second of it.

She was the love of Andy’s life and the best and kindest person he has known. He simply cannot fathom the idea that he won’t see her or talk to her ever again and will miss her a thousand times every day. Across two apartments, three houses, two beautiful daughters - who grew up into amazing intelligent women - and three wonderful, intelligent, crazy grandsons, he has loved every minute of their 43 years together.

Tracey has had several health challenges over the last 18 months. However, they thought those were all behind them and all that was needed was time for recovery. On that morning, she had a sudden heart attack and died instantly. The only saving grace is that she didn’t suffer.

She was preceded in death by her parents and is survived by her husband, Andy Fritsch; daughters, Lauren Helfer of Montgomery and Sarah Fritsch of Huntsville; grandsons, Charlie Riddler, Nate Helfer and Joe Helfer; siblings, Sandra Wattenbarger of St. Joseph, Missouri, Cathy Ake of Blue Ridge, Georgia, Joy James of Fulton, Missouri and Joe Zuzul of Pittsburg, Kansas; and her aunt, Christina Addison. She was blessed to have a huge group of wonderful family and friends in their neighborhood, their church, across Houston and all over the country and the world.

A Celebration of Tracey’s life will be held at 2 PM on Wednesday, May 4th at First Methodist Church – Conroe, 4308 West Davis Street, Conroe, TX 77304. A reception at the church will follow the service. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation in Tracey’s memory to the Community Assistance Center, 1022 McCall Avenue, Conroe, TX 77301 and indicate “In Memory of Tracey Fritsch". This is a wonderful organization that helps those in the community who are struggling in so many different ways.





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