••• Frank Shramek 1933-2021
Frank Shramek, 88, a U.S. Navy veteran, former Mutual 12 director and longtime Golden Age Foundation volunteer, died Jan. 17.
He and his wife, Joan, have lived in Leisure World for more than 32 years. In his later years, Frank was a familiar sight, riding his cart around Leisure World to pick up batteries from the News Office and other LW sites for recycling through the Golden Age Foundation.
He also spent years at the helm of the GAF Mobility Aids Program, loaning Leisure World residents free walkers and wheelchairs. He and his team maintained and kept track of the equipment, so all LWers would have it immediately available after an accident or surgery.
Frank was active at Leisure World Baptist Church, which he attended with his wife, who was a LW contributor for the church.
Frank, born Jan. 8, 1933, met Joan Lembke at the Pike Amusement Zone in Long Beach in 1953. Joan was a senior at Banning High School in Wilmington. Celebrating the end of the school year, she and her girlfriends were looking forward to riding the Cyclone Racer, a large wooden dual-track roller coaster built out on pilings over the waters.
That day, the USS Rochester was in port, and she was about to meet the love of her life, Frank Shramek, USN.
Frank attended her high school graduation, and the couple was married the next day—on June 19, 1954—in Yuma, Arizona. Joan was 17, and Frank 21.
In a 2019 Valentine’s Day story in the LW Weekly, Joan remembered, “It was love at first sight”—and one that has endured a lifetime. “Never a day passes when we don’t say, ‘I love you.’” The couple had two children ,Shelley Hastings (Jim) of Mutual 5 and Butch (Susan) Shramek of Lakewood; four grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
