French/Davis Family

Reprinted from The Free Lance -Star news Paper of Fredericksburg, Va
Sat. March 7th, 1998

Fredericksburg's Frederick French can't stand to stop working
By MICHAEL ZlTZ
The Free Lance-Star

Fredrick doesn't believe in taking it easy. Never has. When he turns 70 on Thursday, it'll be a rare day off, unlike just about every other week- day and most weekends for the last 60 years, He's been working hard ever since the day at age 11 when he started shining shoes in downtown Fredericksburg. Even then, back in 1939, he had more than one job. He also served as a paper boy, delivering the Richmond Times-Dispatch before the crack of dawn and The Rlchmond News-LRader after school. On Saturday mornings, the fifth-grader would go straight from delivering papers to shining shoes. Hard work was something French accepted early on as a fact of life.His father was a farm laborer who worked from daybreak to dusk. Young French soon became a golf caddy at Mansfield Country Club in Fredericksburg. Because of those caddying days, he said proudly, he now knows many important people around town-"from the banker to the lawyer." And summer vacations from school were no vacation. He spent them working as a kitchen helper at the Occidental Restaurant on Princess Anne Street in Fredericksburg. By the time he was 16, French hall dropped out of school and was working two jobs-not because he had to, but because he wanted to.

He'd left Walker-Crant High School to take a full-time job working at the Fracton Cinder Block Plant in Fredericksburg. He moved to Philadelphia to live with an older brother and quickly decided he didn't like big cities. "Too many people," French said. So he came home. He took a job as a driver for the Bottled Gas Corp.of Virginia. And that led to a 33-year Federal government career--beginning in 1951--driving officers at Quantico Marine Corps Base. 9 liked that because I got to know people all over the United States: French said. He spent his 'off" hours during 10 of those years driving a cab he'd bought. Along the way, he found time to marry Rosie Conway and have three children--Frederick French Jr., Roslynn Johnson and Caroline Rickson.

When French finally "retired" from the federal government in 1984, he found he couldn't bring himsell to kick back and put his feet up at his Mayfield home. 'Sitting around at home just wasn't my thing," French said. So he took two new jobs--one as a cabbie for Burnbrey's Independent Cab Service in Federicksburg and the other driving a van Ior Kenmore Plantation Gardens. At Kenmore, he chauffeured VIPs, including the historic home's Board of Regents. With that kind of work ethic over that length of time, French a gentle, good- natured man does'nt Iike some of what he's seeing in the 1990. "I'm just concerned about the society we live in,": he said. Back in his day, he said, people didn't make excuses the way they do today. They didn't blame society if they didn't get breaks. They made their own.

'If you weren't born of rich parents, you would go out there and work: French said. He said he doesn't like to see people accept assistance when thgt can help themselves. 'So many elderly people want people to rake their yards, cut their grass, trim their tree~ clean their gutters and they can't get nobody to do it, French said. "I never had that kind of attitude. My Daddy never told me I had to go to work. He didn't even I know I was gonna drop out of school 'I did that on my own, because on the weekends, l like to have money in my pocket. Things that I see and that I Ilke, I want to buy." What kind of changes has he seen tn the 40 years he's been a professional driver? It's so frightful now driving, he said, People don't have no regard for other people's safety."

But he said the Fredericksburg fares he picks up in his cab continue to be pleasant. 'Ninety-eight percent are very nice and kindly: French said.it's just the 2 percent who'd put anyone off--same as any other job, I guess."

He's maintained a positive attitude about people in spite of a family tragedy that would have embittered many.

In the spring of 1962, a car full of whlte men stopped on Princess Anne Street and asked French's 14- year-old son Frederick jr. for directions. When Fredeiick Jr leaned into the car to help, the driver, stepped on the gas, dragging him for two blocks before colliding with a parked car and throwing the young ster out. ( The version I heard as a child is , the men were harassing Caroline) Frederick Jr was taken to Mary. Washington Hospital, where one of 1 his legs was amputated. French and his wife offered a $300 reward for information leading to the arrest of the driver. A 19-year-old Quantico Marine was arrested, identified by Frederick Jr. and another, eyewitness as the driver, and put on trial. But he was acquitted because other Marines said he was in Washington at the time of the incident. Even though French suspected a Marine had maimed his son, he continued to work at the Quantico base for 22 more years.

And he continued to exhibit unflagging kindness to others.

In December, Debra P. Thompson, an administrative assistant at Pratt Medical Center in. Fredericksburg, saw French do something that so touched her she had to, immediiately dash off a letter to Bumbrey Cab Setvice.
'Your cab No. 19 pulled up to the back entrance of Pratt Medical Center . . . The driver got out of the' car and warmly the frail elderiy woman with a cane who had requested his services. He walked "up to her at the entrance, gently placed both of his hands on her shoulders and slowly assisted her to the cab, opened the door and carefully placed her in the front seat. What a true gentleman! " Thompson said she was par- ticularly impressed because of the routine displays of discourtesy she's become sadly accustomed to witnessing. She said cabdrivers often pullup, blow the horn, and not as much as reach back and open the door for our elderly patients" -even those who must use walker to reach the cabs.
People at Kenmore say the wealthy, influential VIPs that French chauffeurs love their driver for the same reasons as the elderly patient at the Pratt Center. He's a warm, caring human being. "The regents just thfnk the world of him" said Kelly Youles, director of development at Kenmora "Mr French is just wonderful to the ladies"
She said French's approach to life makes other people feel better. "I think he's a terrific human being: Youles said. "He has a wonderful heart. He has an optimistic attitude about life and the human spirit." " I love people~ French said, 'That's why I've been out there so long."

He said that on.Thusday, he'll take his birthday off and go to with his wife, Rosie, at Red Lobster. "I think I deserve that" he added.

******

I think uncle Fred is everyone's favorite uncle
even those not of the family.........G.D.French, 1999