Pamela Froemsdorf

Pam Froemsdorf loved to feel the grass under her bare feet. She loved singing and dancing and laughing. She was always ready to go — Florida, Las Vegas, on a train ride — no matter what the plan was.

Pam lost her family at a young age. Her father, Gale, died when she was 19; her brother, Roger, died at birth when Pam was 7; and her mother, Frances "Sparky" Froemsdorf, died 18 years later.

Pam's many friends became her family. "She was loving and caring to all, and the amount of friends she had was her testimony to that," said one of them, Karen Switzer.

Pam died Sunday, April 2, 2023, at age 71 from complications of scleroderma, an incurable autoimmune disease.

Carolyn Crain said Pam believed in God and angels: "I always looked at her as one of God's special little earth angels. She always cared for everyone, loved everyone and was so quick to forgive when she was hurt by others."

Pam had the heart and soul of a nurse. She graduated from Cape Girardeau Central High School in 1969 and from the inaugural class of the Licensed Practical Nursing Program at Vo-Tech in Cape Girardeau. She spent most of her career serving in cardiac care at Mercy Hospital in St. Louis. In retirement, she worked as a licensed practical nurse for Comfort Care in Cape Girardeau.

Pam and Debbie Kitchen were best friends. Their parents lived near each other, and Pam remembered finding Debbie in her rabbit hutch at the age of 3. The two spent some years living on the beach in Florida before returning to Missouri. The two were co-leaders of Indivisible SEMO, a Democratic activist group fighting for women's rights and women's health care.

Pam advised when Debbie faced a surgery: "She calmed me down; she showed me love and assured me I would be OK because God had me."

They loved each other like sisters.

Karen Switzer watched Pam be grateful to the staff at the hospitals where she was cared for as her health declined. "Even after she knew that she would not be with us much longer, she never stopped being grateful for the people around her," Switzer said, calling Pam "a really great Christian lady."

She also was a lady who might hide dirty dishes in her oven as party guests were arriving and then, after the oven somehow got turned on, have to explain what was cooking in the oven. "Pam had a way of doing things that were comical and risky," Kitchen recalls.

Pam bonded with Kitchen's daughter, Corie.

David Niswonger and Pam knew each other since the third grade. They nicknamed their teacher that year "Frankenstein", because she never smiled and was mean and grouchy. Laughing and giggling together helped them survive, and they remained friends the rest of their lives. "Knowing Pam was like always knowing you had a friend — forever and ever — always," he said.

"She was that special friend that everyone needs," Sally Leiner said. "She always seemed to know just what to say, and you knew it came from her heart."

Pam loved dancing to Ivas John's music at The Library. She regularly listened to live music across the street at Ebb and Flow.

Friends are invited to Pam's Celebration of Life from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, May 13, at Elks Lodge in Cape Girardeau. Music will be by Ivas John, Chris Moore, Gary Nunnelly and Brad Graham. Please RSVP at (314) 722-5501.

Arrangements have been entrusted to Crain Funeral Home and Cremation Service in Cape Girardeau.