Debra Fry, 64 of Butler, Missouri passed away June 10, 2019 while on vacation in the Bahamas, aboard the Carnival Ecstasy Cruise ship. Cremation, with memorial services to be held 2:00 pm Saturday, July 6, 2019 at Mullinax Funeral Home, Butler(660-679-0009).
A visitation will be held Saturday prior to the service from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm, also at the funeral home. Memorial contributions may be made to the family. Messages of condolence may be left for the family at www.mullinaxfuneralhome.com.
Debra Irene Fry was born July 19, 1954 in Jackson County, Missouri to William and Beatrice Roberts Aldridge. She grew up in the Kansas City area and attended William Chrisman High School, graduating in 1972. Debi was a member of the marching band where she excelled at playing the drums. She even played drums for a jazz band in Kansas City for a short time and gave drum lessons.
Debi married her high school sweetheart, Bryan Treffer in 1973. They would soon introduce their fist born daughter, Candice Avery to the family. Together they lived a military life, stationed first in San Diego, California then later in Guam.
Later as life began to change, Debi worked for Heart of America Candies Warehouse and Helzberg Diamonds as a payroll clerk. She even waited tables at Pizza Hut in the evenings to support her new found role as a single mom. She worked hard to make it through some very difficult times.
Debi would later reconnect with a boyfriend from Junior High School, Ellery Griffith. They were married in 1985. The family would begin to grow. In 1986 Dustin Taylor Griffith would join the family, followed by Caleb Lucas Griffith in 1987. Debi was a preacher’s wife at this time. The family moved from Independence, Missouri to Union, Missouri in 1985. They would make lots of lasting relationships and fond memories in Union before moving to Archibald, Louisiana in 1991 to begin a ministry of preaching there. In 1993 the family would move back to Missouri to be closer to Debi’s mother. This is when Debi and Ellery became foster parents and began fostering children with special needs and emergency placements. Because of Debi’s big heart and desire to care for others, she received the nomination for Foster Parent of the Year. During this time, Debi and Ellery decided to adopt Kristin, Sophia, and Drew Griffith. Debi’s role in life changed once again. Because of the children’s handicaps, Debi became a full-time stay at home caregiver for the girls.
In 2001 Debi married Jeffrey Fry. Together they purchased a farm in Hume, Missouri. They loved to travel and visit family in Ohio, Florida, and Texas. At one point they even incorporated work with their travels by delivering travel trailers all over the U.S. Debi and Jeff also ran stores in Joplin and Nevada, Missouri. But Debi’s main role was still to care for the girls, Kristin and Sophia along with Jeff.
Family was very important to Debi and she loved to spend as much time as possible with her kids and grandkids. She enjoyed the holidays and getting the entire family together, especially for Thanksgiving.
In 2006 Debi and Jeff moved to Butler, Missouri where they remodeled a church to make as their home with the girls.
Then in 2018, two days before Christmas, Debi was told she needed to visit an Oncologist. Her doctors had discovered spots on her lungs and liver. In January of 2019 Debi’s role would once again change, this time to be a fighter, as she was diagnosed with Stage 4 small cell lung cancer. Debi met this struggle just as she did all the others, with a strong will and desire to get through it. She began with treatment right away. After five aggressive chemo treatments, and two attempts of maintenance chemo, Debi’s body was not responding how she wanted. After six months of fighting, Debi would pass away peacefully with the ocean in the background, on her final trip to the Bahamas.
Debi was preceded in death by her parents, brother Lewis Meloan, nephew D’Artagnan Meloan, and son Dustin Griffith. She is survived by her husband Jeffrey Fry, daughter Candice McGee and husband Tony, sons Caleb and Drew Griffith, daughters, Sophia and Kristin Griffith, daughter-in-law Tracy Griffith, and grandchildren, Brandon, Jonathan, and Kyle Westover, Sean Griffith, Kayla McGee, Tori Hopkins, Levi Hopkins, Dylan McGee, Lizabeth Krause, Gage McGee, Laney McGee, and great-grandson Gatlin Hopkins. Debi is also survived by her brother Terence Meloan and wife Coleen, sister Julie Stevenson and husband Arlo, sister Crystal Stowell and husband Mark, along with many nieces and nephews.
