Nancy Howard Frick

Nancy Howard Frick entered the loving embrace of her Eternal Father on February 1, 2024. She passed from natural causes after an extended struggle with dementia. She was 71 years old. Nancy was the only child of John Crosson and Gertrude Yarley Howard. She was born and raised in Monetta, SC and graduated from Ridge Spring-Monetta High School. As a child, she was fond of playing with her friends, watching movies, frolicking outside with her family’s dogs, and carefully studying the piano. She would go on long adventures with her aunt and uncle during the summers all over the United States and was treated like a princess as they travelled, sometimes as lost as they were found. In high school, she was a good student and participated in various activities inside and outside of school, including pageants. She also spent time as an officer in the school and state student council. After high school, she attended Columbia College where she earned her degree in music, with a focus on piano and vocal performance. She married and moved around the state with her family, spending time in Simpsonville, Spartanburg, Anderson, Chapin, and finally Irmo, where she resided until her health required she receive the assistance of God’s wonderful servants at Still Hopes Episcopal Retirement Community in West Columbia in July of 2021. Nancy’s occupation, avocation and greatest passion in life was music. As a private piano and public school music teacher, she shared the gift of music with so many people. She was a coloratura soprano and regularly participated in musical theater and opera performances. She also performed in local bands both as a vocalist and a pianist. The period of her life where she was regularly performing music were among her happiest. She was a loyal and active member of the choir at every church she attended. For someone whose small hands could barely reach an octave on a keyboard, she was an incredibly gifted accompanist who could adeptly play by sight or ear. As a result, she was either a regular or fill-in accompanist on both the piano and organ for every church she attended and for many she didn’t. She also accompanied on piano or organ for community theater performances, weddings, and funerals throughout the communities in which she lived. She volunteered as a leader of choirs of all ages and types and, eventually, ended her career as an elementary music educator and chorus director at Oak Pointe Elementary School. Over the years, thousands of people in and around South Carolina were inspired and impacted by her musical gifts as a teacher, leader, accompanist or performer. While music was her greatest passion, her greatest love was for her family, particularly her children and grandchildren. She would say often that her greatest gift from God was being a mother and grandmother. In that role, she made sure that her children and grandchildren felt loved, supported, and encouraged in the fullness of their joys, sorrows, triumphs, and struggles. When they behaved wonderfully, she celebrated them. When they behaved terribly, she forgave them. And for someone who sometimes doubted her own abilities to meet the challenges of life, she made sure she instilled confidence and self-love in each of them. Her community and her friends were of such tremendous importance to her. When she moved to Irmo, she discovered and rediscovered the family that she was able to choose—her dear friends from school, church, and her neighborhood in whose life she became a fixture and without whom, her life would have had far less sparkle and joy. Nancy also shared a kinship with everyone who has had the bittersweet experience of loving a pet who has been with us and who has left us. She thoroughly loved, and was loved, by three beautiful blonde cocker spaniels, Sandy, Pippen, and Bella, and loved the thought that they would be reunited again one day on the other side. She was a person of very strong faith and someone who always looked at death without fear as she was assured of the grace of God and the fullness of life eternal in Heaven. She would want to convey to everyone who loved her that today, she is without pain, her voice is strong, her mind is clear, and she is completely surrounded by, and immersed in, love. Nancy is preceded in death by her parents, John C. and Gertrude Howard, her beloved aunt and uncle Ernest and Florene Boland, and her great aunt Flossie Shealy. She is survived by her children, John Frick of West Columbia; Matt Frick (Leah) of Chapin; Julie Frick of Lexington; her grandchildren Gabe, McKenzie, and Ansley Frick of Chapin; her best friend from childhood Jeannie Conroy (Mike); her best friend from adulthood Wanda Bickley (Eric); her trusted caregiver and friend Julia Singleton; her extended Frick family; and many other special friends, both old and new. A celebration of her life will be held at Riverland Hills Baptist Church in Irmo on Sunday, February 11th, 2024 at 3:00 pm. The family will receive visitors at the church immediately after the service. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that any memorials be made to the Still Hopes Employee Assistance Fund, One Still Hopes Drive, West Columbia, SC 29169.