Ken Frye -- Celebrating a Life
Ken Frye died peacefully in the personal care home of Country Care Manor in Fayette City, Pennsylvania, on November 1, 2020, at the age of 88. Ken was born and grew up in Turtle Creek, PA. He was one of three children born to Howard and Cecilia Keating Frye. Ken was quite young when he signed up with the U.S. Navy, becoming a Medic in the Korean War. From 1949 to 1953, he served, and he earned a Bronze Star for Bravery Under Fire. On the GI bill, Ken attended the Pittsburgh School of Art. While there, he met another student, Susan Gates, from Finleyville, PA, and a romance bloomed. They married in 1955, moving from rural Pennsylvania to Manhattan, New York. They lived in Greenwich Village, and then the Lower East Side. They had three children -- Sally, Kathy, and Daniel. Ken worked as a Commercial Artist for many years, also doing art in his free time. His wife was and is a different but equally talented artist, and his surviving daughter and son, Sally and Daniel, inherited artistic genes as well, as well as Kathy, who passed away as a child. In the 1970s and into the 1980s, after the family moved to Staten Island, Ken became an actor and acted in many community theatre plays. He also directed productions as "Rhinocerus" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". He appeared in many commercials, and acted in a few films and TV productions. He put on some puppet shows, and even did stand-up. Ken also did a lot of writing (in his own unique voice) -- plays, short stories and poems -- and did some public readings. Ken Frye loved talking with different kinds of people and was easy to get along with. Ken enjoyed popular culture. He was an ardent Beatles fan, but he loved all sorts of music. He was lucky to have seen many shows in Mahattan, such as the debut of "West Side Story", his favorite musical, and Billie Holiday at her best. He took the family on vacations to wonderful places, but also thought of things to do at home, like Family Entrances. Ken disliked tyranny, bigotry and unfair political policies, and had a progressive, open mind. Ken Frye is survived by Susan Calderone, ex-wife and very good friend, daughter Sally and son Daniel (and grandson Seb, Dan's son). He leaves behind many friends he has met in his life, fellow actors, work colleagues, and neighbors from New York, and from his last residence in California, PA, where he lived for nearly a decade. He even befriended a few of the nursing staff from Country Care Manor, where he lived for eight months, and from Amedysis hospice care. Depending on the day, he might keep to himself, but he might be as outgoing and friendly as he’d always been, sometimes telling stories from his long and interesting life. There will never be another Ken Frye, a unique and creative person, and, as many called him, "......a great guy"
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