Joseph S. Frelinghuysen Jr.

Joseph Sherman Frelinghuysen Jr. (August 11, 1912 – January 8, 2005) was the author of Passages to Freedom, about his escape from a prison camp in Italy during World War II.

Joseph Sherman Frelinghuysen Jr.
Born(1912-08-11)August 11, 1912
East Hampton, New York
DiedJanuary 8, 2005(2005-01-08) (aged 92)
Morristown, New Jersey
NationalityAmerican
Alma materPrinceton University (1934)
OccupationAuthor
SpouseEmily Lawrance
ParentJoseph S. Frelinghuysen Sr.
AwardsSilver Star

Early life

Frelinghuysen was born in East Hampton, New York, the son of Emily Brewster Frelinghuysen and Joseph Sherman Frelinghuysen Sr., a New Jersey state senator and later U.S. senator.[1] In 1916, he was painted as a young boy, with his mother in a full-length portrait by the Swiss-born American artist Adolfo Müller-Ury, which was later donated to the Newark Museum in New Jersey. He graduated from Princeton University in 1934.

Service and career

During World War II, he served as an artillery captain in the First Infantry Division in North Africa. Members of his family had served in the military since the Revolutionary War. On November 23, 1942, he was captured by German troops and taken to a prison camp in Italy. He and another American POW, Richard M. Rossbach, escaped on September 23, 1943, by crawling through the camp's wire fences. The British Eighth Army, which they had hoped to join, was stationed on the other side of the Apennines.[2] Though the Germans briefly recaptured Rossbach, they both succeeded in rejoining the Allied forces.[3]

After the war, Frelinghuysen worked in insurance and later managed the family dairy business in Somerville, New Jersey.[1][3]

Personal life

Frelinghuysen married Emily Lawrance (1911-2004),[4] the daughter of Charles Lawrance (the son of Francis C. Lawrance Jr.)[5] and Emily Margaret Gordon Dix (the daughter of Rev. Morgan Dix, rector of Trinity Parish).[6] Together, they had:[3]

  • Barbara Frelinghuysen, who married Thomas C. Israel, chairman of Ingleside Investors[7]
  • Joseph S. Frelinghuysen III, Princeton class of '63 and president of J. S. Frelinghuysen & Company, a financial advisory and private investment concern in Mendham, N.J.[8]
  • Margaret Lawrance Frelinghuysen, who married Paul Alfred Kurzman in 1964. Kurzman is a great-grandson of Ida and Isidor Straus, who died aboard the Titanic in 1912. Mr. Straus was a U.S. Congressman and a co-owner of Macy's department store.[9]
  • Susan Emily Frelinghuysen, who married Robert Dudley van Roijen in 1981. van Roijen is the grandson of Jan Herman van Roijen, the Netherlands Minister to the United States from 1918 to 1933.[10]

At the end of his life, Frelinghuysen was living in Far Hills, New Jersey, and died of pneumonia on January 8, 2005, in Morristown, New Jersey.[3]

Published work
  • Keep Your Heart Running (1976) with Dr. Paul J. Kiell
  • Passages to Freedom (1990)[11]

References
  1. "Joseph S. Frelinghuysen, 92, WWII POW, marathon runner". The Star-Ledger. January 11, 2005.
  2. Murray, David (March 31, 1991). "Cold, Scared, Hungry and Free". New York Times.
  3. Bayot, Jennifer (January 13, 2005). "Joseph S. Frelinghuysen, Memoirist of Wartime Escape, Dies at 92". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-07-01. Joseph S. Frelinghuysen, whose memoir, "Passages to Freedom," chronicled his escape from a prison camp in Italy during World War II, died on Saturday in Morristown, N.J. He was 92 and lived in Far Hills, N.J. The cause was pneumonia, said his daughter Barbara F. Israel.
  4. "Emily Frelinghuysen, 93, resident of Far Hills". New Jersey Hills. December 29, 2004. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  5. "FRELINGHUYSEN, EMILY LAWRANCE". The New York Times. December 26, 2004. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  6. Staff (April 5, 1910). "MISS DIX TO BE A BRIDE. Daughter of Late Rector of Trinity to Wed Charles Lanier Lawrance". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  7. "Emily Israel, James Pluhar: Weddings". The New York Times. April 1, 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  8. "WEDDINGS; Ms. Clay, Mr. Frelinghuysen". The New York Times. 31 May 1998. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  9. Times, Special To The New York (12 July 1964). "Margaret Frelinghuysen Is Betrothed". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  10. "Susan E. Frelinghuysen Married in Capital". The New York Times. February 1, 1981. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  11. Frelinghuysen, Joseph S. (1990). Passages to freedom : a story of capture and escape. Manhattan, Kan., USA: Sunflower University Press. ISBN 0897451317.
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