Janis Froelich writes about murder

In 1974, firmer BJ staffer Janis Froelich and Linda McLain were young homemakers. Both took temporary jobs with the 57th PGA Championship in Akronl

The outcome of this particular PGA Championship at the famed Firestone Country Club is one people

still talk about because of the miraculous 16th hole play by Jack Nicklaus. But little known are the murder and mayhem happening behind the scenes preceding the tournament.

Linda is murdered on a freezing February night in 1975., Froelich retraces how this tragedy happened and finds an inspiring finish to a violent case still deemed “shocking” by the defense attorney.

Based on a St. Petersburg Times article, the paperback book version of Froelich’s early years life story also includes an interesting historical footnote about a young Firestone family in St. Petersburg who suffered their own nightmare.
       
A portion of the profits from this book will be donated in Linda's name to The Spring of Tampa Bay (813-247-SAFE) and Domestic Violence Center of Greater Cleveland (216-391-HELP).

There will be an open house cocktail arty for Janis on Tueday, July 27, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Viking Vineyards & Winery, 268 Old Forge Rd., (Brimfield Township) Kent, OH 44240.

There also will be book signings at Ellet Branch of Akron-Summit County Public Library at 10:30 a.m. Friday, July 23, and Learned Owl Book Shop in Hudson at 1 p.m. Sunday, July 25.

That’s a photo of former BJ reporter Janis Froelich enjoying a Tampa Bay Rays baseball game in St. Petersburg’s Tropicana Stadium, which changes names more often than I change underwear. It began as the Florida Suncoast Dome and then switched to the ThunderDome before settling on Tropicana Park.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are neck-and-neck with the New York Yankees in this year’s American League East division standings. The Cleveland Indians also in a neck-and-neck race, but with the Chicago White Sox for last place in the American League Central division.

The woman sitting next to Janice amid Boston Red Sox fans, no less, Michelle Bearden, explains the headgear:

“Ladies night at the Trop! Free Rays cowboy hats. With longtime buddy Janis Froelich, a true baseball fan! Let's crush those Red Sox!”

When you go to a game at the Trop, besides catching sunrays you also can feed and/or pet the 30 devil rays roaming in a 10,000-gallon tank, among the 10-largest in America. If you don’t count the swimming rays, the Trop capacity is 40,473.

When I walked into Ol’ Blue Walls for the first time in 1969, as a new State Desk hire courtesy of Ben Maidenburg’s generosity to a guy who had been fired at the Dayton Daily News for his union activities, I looked around (remember, this was in my male chaunist days; I’ve gotten better since) and thought: “Damn, that Janis Froelich and Joan Rice are the hottest babes in this newsroom!”

Joan and I later had desks next to each other in the Features Department before we both retired, me in 1996 to Cuyahoga Falls and later Tallmadge, and Joan to her Rootstown sanctuary with a retired cop, Larry Momchilov. Joan, Mark Dawidziak and Bob Dyer are probably my closest friends from my BJ days.

In 2010 Janis published "My Life Looking Back at a Murder. A Disparate Story About the 57th PGA Championship at Firestone Country Club," about her friend, Linda McClain, who was volunteering with Janis at the 57^th PGA Championship at Firestone Country Club in 1974.

Janis’ Kent State roommate at one time was Paula Slimak, a former PD reporter. Janis grew up in an 1853 farmhouse right off Hudson's downtown Main Street. She’s been married for almost two decades to St. Petersburg photographer Ray Bassett, owner of Maddock Photography. Well, he has a great live-in model (there’s that latent chauvinism creeping in again).

Nowadays, Janis writes, “I mostly babysit two granddaughters, Halle, 9, and Clare, 6. Larry Froelich, another BJ Alum, is my ex-husband and the proud grandfather of these two.”