news-record.com

GREENSBORO -- If you live in the Kirkwood neighborhood, chances are you knew Fannie Kletzien.

If you lived there a decade ago, you probably knew Fannie Kletzien.

And even if you haven't set foot in Kirkwood in a half-century, chances are you remember Fannie Kletzien.

Few people in Greensboro have been as connected with a neighborhood as Kletzien, who died this week at the age of 106.

One of the rare people who are at the heart of huge networks that stretch across decades and geographical boundaries, she befriended generations of the neighborhood's residents over the years.

Kletzien - who liked to be called by her full name, Fannie Hardin Northrop Kletzien - gave candy to children, a sympathetic ear to those in need and a friendly wave to anyone who passed by her Colonial Avenue porch.

"She was kind of the neigborhood rock," said William Northrop, her nephew. "It's like what we would like to go back to, where everybody looks after each other."

Kletzien didn't move to Kirkwood, which sits east of Lawndale Drive and north of Cornwallis Drive, until she and her husband, Helmuth, were in their late 50s.

But they quickly became a center of neighborhood life.

Northrop said he recently ran into a woman in her 50s who vividly recalled growing up in Kletzien's neighborhood.

"All the kids would go up there because we'd get Saturday candy," she told him.

Over the years, the porches on many of the neighborhood's smaller homes have been enclosed, as owners created more interior space.

But never Kletzien. She loved the porch, where she liked to sit and watch passers-by, not to mention receive guests.

Over time, many friends moved away, off to different neighborhoods in Greensboro and beyond. But people came back to visit, particularly during Kirkwood's famous Fourth of July parade, Northrop said.

"Cars would cover the front yard," he said. "She's got friends everywhere."

Before retiring, she taught math at Page High School after graduating from Woman's College, now UNCG.
After she retired, she stayed busy with gardening and loved to keep up with current events, including last year's presidential election.

"She was pretty happy, even though she was a dyed-in-the-wool Republican," Northrop said, noting her first presidential vote was for Herbert Hoover. "She liked Obama."

She stayed busy until near the end, Northrop said, but finally wore out. She went to sleep one night and didn't wake up, he said.

And she left behind plenty of people who remember her well, he said.

"It's a wonderful life. She enjoyed it very much. And everybody loved her."

Contact Jason Hardin at 373-7021 or at jason.hardin@news-record.com