Editor’s note: This is one of a continuing online series of profiles of the more than 12,000 Hoosiers who have died from COVID-19. The stories are from 12 Indiana newspapers, including The Republic, who collaborated to create the collection to highlight the tremendous loss that the pandemic has created. The series appears daily at therepublic.com.
Name: Dierdre “Dee” Fettig
City/Town: Crawfordsville
Age: 59
Died: July 21
Dee Fettig owned and operated the local ice cream shop, The Big Dipper, for several years.
She sold the business to raise her children, according to her obituary, and later provided home care for seniors, including her mother who lost part of her arm in a car crash.
A kid needed a ride home? She’d give them a lift. Short on cash in the checkout line? She’d pay for your groceries.
Fettig and her husband, Phil, who was born in France, had planned to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary there this summer. They met through Fettig’s brother, one of Phil’s bandmates.
“My uncle kept trying to get my mom to meet up with my dad,” said Fettig’s 30-year-old son, Luke, “and she kept dodging him because she didn’t want to date any of her brother’s friends.”
Fettig warmly embraced Phil’s heritage, visiting his family in France several times and whipping up special French dinners and desserts.
Luke Fettig’s favorite meal was a Mississippi roast, and she made him an almond cake every year for his birthday.
She had traveled to Germany, Australia and Canada and enjoyed exploring the United States, including a family vacation to St. Augustine, Florida last year.
— Contributed by the Journal Review, Crawfordsville
