Anne Friesen was born to Susanna Schultz and David P. Schultz on Jan. 18, 1923, in Marion, South Dakota. She received Jesus as her personal Saviour at age 9 and was baptized 2 years later in the Vermillion River near Dolton, S.D. In 1940, her family moved to Oregon, where her father became the pastor of Dallas MB Church. After her senior year of high school in Dallas, Anne attended the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (Biola) where she became a Christian education major. While in school, she also sang in the Biola Radio Choir, travelled to local churches to give her personal testimony and to sing, and worked in various jobs to pay the expenses of her education and service. In 1945, Anne married John E. Friesen. In 2003, Anne wrote, “Both John and I had individually heard the call to ministry. Together, we obeyed that call.” At the end of the summer in 1945, she returned to Biola to finish her degree while John was required to continue working in Civilian Public Service as a conscientious objector to war. In 1946, Anne completed her studies, John was released from CPS, and they began a 9-year period of ministry in Portland and Los Angeles while John attended Multnomah School of the Bible and Fuller Theological Seminary. After he finished those programs, they served in California MB churches in Dinuba, Bakersfield, Lodi, and Arleta, and in Chilliwack and Dawson Creek in B.C. About those years Anne wrote, “I found joy in my role as helper and support to John in our pastorates in different ways, sometimes going along making visitations, often entertaining guests in our home, and sharing in the ministry of prayer.” In retirement, Anne was active in the Willow Creek Homeowners’ Association (Fresno) and, after John’s death in 2009, she moved to Palm Village Retirement Community in Reedley, Cal., where she died on Mar. 21, 2024.
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