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Person

Vernon Hugh "Dick" LaFreniere

Also Dick La Freniere · Dick LaFreniere · Vernon Hugh LaFreniere · V. H. LaFreniere

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

TypePerson
Born1914-08-14
Died1978-10-04
WithinBeaver Island
ErasModern era
On this page
Person
Born
1914-08-14
Died
1978-10-04
Work
Proprietor, general store (formerly McCann's), St. James harbor · Co-owner and partner, Shamrock Bar · First manager, Beaver Island Airport (unpaid) · Volunteer Unicom radio operator, Beaver Island Airport · Member, original Top O' Michigan REA board of directors · School board member · Parish Council member, Holy Cross Church · Past president, Beaver Island Game Club
Spouse
Musette LaFreniere · Jean LaFreniere
Member of
Beaver Island Civic Association · Beaver Island Game Club · Beaver Island Historical Society
Eras
Modern era
Concepts
communitygovernancehealthcareeconomyaviation
Within
Beaver Island

Summary

Vernon Hugh “Dick” LaFreniere (1914–1978) ran a general store on the St. James harbor for 36 years, from his 1941 purchase of the McCann store until its November 1977 sale, and before that co-owned the Shamrock Bar with his brother Archie. Beyond the store, the Beaver Beacon documents him as a founding committee member of the Beaver Island Historical Society (1955), Civic Association Activities Committee chairman and Polio Benefit chairman (1962), unpaid Unicom radio operator at the Beaver Island Airport (1964), and, by his own obituary’s account, the airport’s first manager, a member of the original Top O’ Michigan REA board, a school board member, a Holy Cross Parish Council member until 1969, and a past president of the Beaver Island Game Club. He married Musette Belfy around 1937 and, after that marriage ended by an unrecorded cause, married Jean (Zeitler) Gallagher in 1968. He died at home on Beaver Island on October 4, 1978, aged 64, and is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery.

History

Vernon Hugh “Dick” LaFreniere was born at St. James on Beaver Island on August 14, 1914, and graduated from Beaver Island High School in 1933.1 With his brother Archie LaFreniere he owned and operated the Shamrock Bar as partners until 1941, when he left to purchase the McCann general store opposite the ferry dock on the St. James harbor; he sold his remaining interest in the Shamrock to Archie in 1946.1 The store’s motto, “If we don’t have it, you don’t need it,” ran under LaFreniere’s name in Beacon advertising for more than three decades. Its dock was widened in 1955 to ease car and truck traffic to and from the ferry Emerald Isle,2 and by January 1962 the Emerald Isle’s farewell foghorn at the close of the shipping season was answered from the LaFreniere store.3 A grass fire reached the store’s living quarters on April 17, 1962, and was put out by the volunteer fire department after crews cut holes in the newly decorated room to reach the flames.4 LaFreniere ran the store through the 1971 telephone directory and into the 1973 season, when Beacon classifieds still carried “Beaver Island Patches… at Lafreniere’s Store” signed “V. H. LaFreniere, General Store,”5 and he sold it in November 1977 because of ill health.1

LaFreniere’s civic activity is documented from at least 1955, when he joined Mike Cull, Lloyd McDonough, and County Supervisor Charles Robinson on a trip to Hillman to inspect new school buildings for the planned Beaver Island school, and was named with Archie among the founding committee of the newly organized Beaver Island Historical Society.6 That fall, when Lloyd McDonough spotted smoke from a woods fire near Font Lake, he phoned LaFreniere, who “tore down Main St. with his hand on the horn button” (the island’s informal fire alarm before an organized department existed) to summon islanders to the blaze.7 By the early 1960s he chaired the January Polio Benefit and the Civic Association’s Activities Committee, with Lillian Gallagher as co-chairman, and in March 1962 the Beacon reported his 25th wedding anniversary, noting “the LaFrenieres have three boys.”8 His obituary later credits him as instrumental in obtaining the Beaver Island Airport and as its first, unpaid manager for many years; by April 1964 the airport’s manager of record was Karl Kuebler, but the Beacon that month reported that LaFreniere still volunteered to operate the airport’s two-way Unicom radio, letting pilots call ahead for weather or transportation before crossing the lake.9 He also served on the original Top O’ Michigan REA board of directors, on the school board, on Holy Cross Church’s Parish Council until 1969, and as a past president of the Beaver Island Game Club.1

His son Gerald LaFreniere was discharged from the U.S. Army on October 8, 1965, married Carol Schlactor that same month, and by December 1968 the couple had built and moved into their own home on the south end of town; Gerald’s son later received First Communion in 1975.10

LaFreniere died at his home on Beaver Island on Wednesday, October 4, 1978, after a long illness, aged 64. Funeral services were held Friday, October 6, 1978, at Holy Cross Church, with Msgr. Victor Gallagher of St. Paul’s Church, Onaway, and the Rev. Fr. Alvin Yard officiating; interment followed at Holy Cross Cemetery, and a Rosary was recited the evening of his death at the Winchester Funeral Home in Charlevoix. His obituary lists his wife as Jean; sons Gerald N. of St. James, Leon of Ludington, and Paul H. of Charlevoix; stepson Michael J. Gallagher of Highland; grandchildren Michelle, Gerald, and Debby of St. James; a stepgrandchild; his stepmother; two brothers, including D. Archie of St. James; and three sisters.1 The same issue carries a short signed tribute to him from “Debbi Gallagher,” dated the day of his death — likely, though the source does not say so directly, the granddaughter Debby named among the survivors.1

Significance

LaFreniere’s general store anchored the harbor side of St. James for more than three decades, and his name recurs across the Beacon record in roles that were as much about running the island’s civic infrastructure as selling groceries: fire alarm, school-building committee, Historical Society founder, Game Club president, Parish Council member, REA director, and, by his own obituary’s account, the man who got the island’s airport built and then answered its radio without pay for years after someone else held the title of manager. That combination of storekeeper and volunteer official was common on an island of this size in the mid-20th century, and LaFreniere’s record is one of the more fully documented examples of it in the held Beacon corpus.

Evidence and limits

The February 1962 anniversary notice names his wife as Musette, matching the Holy Cross Cemetery’s entry for Dick LaFreniere as husband of Musette Belfy. His October 1978 obituary names his wife at death as Jean (née Zeitler), whom he married on March 2, 1968 at Traverse City — she had previously been married to a Gallagher, which accounts for stepson Michael J. Gallagher among his survivors. Read together, the sources describe two marriages in sequence rather than a genuine conflict, and confidence here is set to probable rather than established because no source read for this article gives a date, or a stated cause, for the end of the marriage to Musette before 1968. A June 1972 hospital note and an unrelated April 1974 obituary that independently name “Mrs. V. H. (Jean) LaFreniere” / “Mrs. Vernon (Jean) LaTreniere” corroborate the 1968 marriage rather than complicating it; see the related discussion at Jean LaFreniere.

A separate, unresolved question concerns the Shamrock. LaFreniere’s obituary states plainly that he and Archie “owned and operated the Shamrock Bar as partners until 1941” and that he sold his interest to Archie in 1946. The article on the Shamrock Inn holds a June 1945 newspaper feature naming “Richard LaFrangiere” as the tavern’s active bartender-proprietor at a date when, per this obituary, Dick LaFreniere had already spent four years running the general store instead — a tension this article does not resolve, and flags rather than adjudicates. Whether “Richard LaFrangiere” is a variant rendering of Dick LaFreniere, a different family member, or an unrelated person is a question for whoever holds both records, not settled by the source read here.

No source read for this article documents a specific illness, cause of death, or the location or terms of the store’s 1977 sale beyond “ill health.”

Open questions

  • What ended the marriage to Musette Belfy before March 1968 — her death, or another cause — and when?
  • Is the “Richard LaFrangiere” named as the Shamrock’s bartender-proprietor in June 1945 the same man as Dick LaFreniere, given the obituary’s account that he left active management of the bar in 1941?
  • Who purchased the general store from LaFreniere in November 1977, and did it continue to operate under a related name?
  • What years did LaFreniere serve as first manager of the Beaver Island Airport, and when did Karl Kuebler succeed him in that title?

See also

Footnotes

  1. Beaver Beacon, October 1978, “Vernon H. ‘Dick’ LaFreniere.” ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  2. Beaver Beacon, June 1955, items column. ↩

  3. Beaver Beacon, January 1962, “Goodbye, Dear Old Girl.” ↩

  4. Beaver Beacon, May 1962, “Fires.” ↩

  5. Beaver Beacon telephone directories, 1968, 1971, 1973. ↩

  6. Beaver Beacon, November 1955, items column. ↩

  7. Beaver Beacon, October 1955, “Labor Day Fire.” ↩

  8. Beaver Beacon, February 1962, “Polio Benefit,” “Anniversaries,” and “Civic Association News.” ↩

  9. Beaver Beacon, April 1964, “Airport Comes to Life.” ↩

  10. Beaver Beacon, October 1965, “Servicemen’s News.” ↩

Kin

MusetteLaFreniereThis articleVernon Hugh"Dick" LaFreniere1914 – 1978Jean LaFreniere
Only relations stated in the sources are drawn; absence means unrecorded, not childless or unmarried.

The dated record

3 dated events · 1914–1978These years on the timeline →

Sources

  1. Lists Vernon Hugh "Dick" LaFreniere (1914–1978), husband of Musette Belfy. The Beacon names Dick LaFreniere with Musette at their twenty-fifth anniversary in 1962; his October 1978 obituary (below) names his wife at death as Jean, resolving the apparent conflict as a second marriage in 1968.
  2. Full obituary. Born St. James, August 14, 1914; graduated Beaver Island High School 1933; owned and operated the Shamrock Bar with brother Archie as partners until 1941, when he purchased the McCann general store opposite the ferry dock on the St. James harbor (motto "If we don't have it, you don't need it"); sold his Shamrock Bar interest to Archie in 1946; sold the general store in November 1977 for ill health; married C. Jean (Zeitler) Gallagher on March 2, 1968 at Traverse City; member and, until 1969, Parish Council member of Holy Cross Church; instrumental in obtaining the Beaver Island Airport and its first (unpaid) manager for many years; member of the original Top O' Michigan REA board of directors; school board member; past president of the Beaver Island Game Club. Died at home on Beaver Island, Wednesday, October 4, 1978, after a long illness, aged 64. Funeral services Friday, October 6, 1978, at Holy Cross Church, Msgr. Victor Gallagher (St. Paul's Church, Onaway) and Rev. Fr. Alvin Yard officiating; interment Holy Cross Cemetery; Rosary at the Winchester Funeral Home, Charlevoix, October 4. Survivors: wife Jean; sons Gerald N. of St. James, Leon of Ludington, and Paul H. of Charlevoix; stepson Michael J. Gallagher of Highland; grandchildren Michelle, Gerald, and Debby of St. James; stepgrandchild Michael Joseph Gallagher of Ludington; stepmother Mrs. Irene Melville of Charlevoix; brothers D. Archie of St. James and Joseph of Chicago and St. James; sisters Mrs. Lawrence (Winifred) McDonough of Charlevoix, Mrs. David (Helen) Pike of Montague, and Mrs. James (Rita) Elms of Ludington. A tribute signed "Debbi Gallagher, October 4, 1978" follows the notice; Debbi appears to be the granddaughter named Debby among the survivors, but the source does not itself make that identification explicit. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1978-10_Beaver-Beacon
  3. The held nine-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1978-10_Beaver-Beacon
  4. Reports "Dick LaFreniere is having the approach to his DOCK WIDENED which will greatly facilitate passage of cars and trucks to and from the Emerald Isle" — placing his store's dock directly on the harbor route used by the ferry. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1955-06_Beaver-Beacon
  5. The held four-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1955-06_Beaver-Beacon
  6. Reports that when Lloyd McDonough spotted smoke from a woods fire near Font Lake on Labor Day 1955, he phoned Dick LaFreniere, "who tore down Main St. with his hand on the horn button," the Island's informal fire alarm, to summon islanders before an organized fire department existed. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1955-10_Beaver-Beacon
  7. The held four-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1955-10_Beaver-Beacon
  8. Reports Mike Cull, Lloyd McDonough, Dick LaFreniere, and County Supervisor Charles Robinson visited Hillman on the 26th to inspect new school buildings for the planned new Beaver Island school, and separately names "Dick and Archie LaFreniere" among the founding membership committee of the newly organized Beaver Island Historical Society, alongside Art Johnston and committee chairman Dr. Vail. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1955-11_Beaver-Beacon
  9. The held three-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1955-11_Beaver-Beacon
  10. Seasonal visitor notice: "Lloyd McDonough and Dick LaFreniere are always on the job in their stores to satisfy your food needs," confirming the general store remained in operation and open to summer visitors in 1959. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1959-05_Beaver-Beacon
  11. The held four-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1959-05_Beaver-Beacon
  12. Names Karl Kuebler as Airport Manager reporting 900 plane landings in the 1963 season, and separately reports that the airport's "Unicom" two-way aviation radio was "operated voluntarily by Vernon 'Dick' LaFreniere," letting pilots radio ahead for weather or transportation — consistent with the obituary's account of unpaid airport service, though by 1964 the title of Airport Manager belonged to Kuebler rather than LaFreniere.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1964-04_Beaver-Beacon
  13. The held six-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1964-04_Beaver-Beacon
  14. Names Dick LaFreniere as a Polio Benefit chairman, reports his twenty-fifth wedding anniversary with Musette on March 3, 1962 ("the LaFrenieres have three boys"), and names him Activities Committee chair with Lillian Gallagher as co-chairman. The notices do not provide a full civil identity or complete association term record.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1962-02_Beaver-Beacon
  15. The held six-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1962-02_Beaver-Beacon
  16. Describes the ferry Emerald Isle sounding its farewell foghorn as it left for the winter, "with the answering farewell" coming from Dick LaFreniere's store — placing his general store on the harbor.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1962-01_Beaver-Beacon
  17. The held five-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1962-01_Beaver-Beacon
  18. Reports "LaFreniere's Grocery Store" on fire from a nearby grass fire on April 17, 1962, extinguished by the volunteer fire department after cutting holes in "the LaFreniere's newly decorated living room."
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1962-05_Beaver-Beacon
  19. The held six-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1962-05_Beaver-Beacon
  20. Lists "Lafreniere, Vernon H. (Store)" and repeated classified ads for "Beaver Island Patches... at Lafreniere's Store," signed "V. H. LaFreniere, General Store." The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1973-06_Beaver-Beacon
  21. The held twenty-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1973-06_Beaver-Beacon
  22. Lists "Mr. and Mrs. V. H. LaFreniere of Beaver Island" attending the May 31, 1971 wedding of Sue Jones and Allen Montague.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1971-07_Beaver-Beacon
  23. The held eleven-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1971-07_Beaver-Beacon
  24. Reports "Gerald LaFreniere, son of Mr. and Mrs. V. H. LaFreniere, was discharged from the U.S. Army on October 8th" — identifying Gerald LaFreniere, father of the 1975 First Communion communicant at [[person/gerald-lafreniere-1975]], as Dick's son.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1965-10_Beaver-Beacon
  25. The held seven-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1965-10_Beaver-Beacon

Added 1 August 2026 · revised 5 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Vernon Hugh "Dick" LaFreniere”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/people/vernon-hugh-dick-lafreniere/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Island Historical Society, "Holy Cross Cemetery," LaFreniere section. (and 24 further sources listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-05. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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