Topic starter
03/04/2007 4:28 pm
Deborah Ann "Fish" Fischbeck died of cancer, yesterday morning, 2 April 2007, at her mother's home near Baltimore Maryland. Though she worked on both the DQ and MQ, the flame-haired beauty was best remembered on the MISSISSIPPI QUEEN as a hard-working maid who kept two linen boys running on turnover days, and could make forty beds an hour on regular days.
It was on the MQ that I first saw her on a departure day when, as the Mate, I first spied her and fell in love with her. Our first date was a row up the Yazoo where we found a sandy shore, built a fire, and as she watched amused, I swam in the river. Though we parted after nearly two years and went separate ways, we continued caring for each other. After 19 years I found her again through the internet and we have continued to correspond since.
Deborah's mother, Sara English, found her daughter had passed away when she went to awaken her for breakfast on Monday morning. It was Mrs. English's 89th birthday. The family has requested donations to the American Cancer Society in lieu of flowers. A graveside ceremony will be held in St. Joseph's Cemetery near her home on Tuesday.
http://www.steamboats.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=242&d=1166210025
05/04/2007 4:55 am
Deb
I met her when she first came aboard the MQ. She was smart and a reader and a writer. She was lovely and didn't know it. She had a terrific wry sense of humor. She had a certain intensity about everything she did. She was totaly involved whether she was working or hiking or having fun or just watching the river go by. She also had the writers ability to step back and examine herself and others with a sense of discovery.
She wanted to learn all there was to know about steamboats and the people who steered them and the people made them go. She always wanted to know what was around the next bend in the river. She wanted to see what was on the other side of the ocean - and she did. She left those of us on the muddy water and went to sea. With time and distance I lost touch with her until a year or so ago.
She still had ever single quality that I had so admired twenty five years ago. We got to catch up with each others lives; what it was like, what happened and what it was like now. It was so nice to be able to renew the bond of friendship before she was gone - gone much too soon.
There is a hole in my heart but I am grateful that she was in my life if only for a little while.
Topic starter
05/04/2007 8:47 pm
Great Lakes remembers...
From a Captain on the Great Lakes; formerly on the BOBLO FERRY:
"She was a great gal and so much fun! I remember the many hours you spent telling me about her and the excitement in your eyes. That's what happens at this time in our lives. The ones we loved the most leave us. God bless her..."
15/04/2007 1:59 am
Wasn't Debbie the one who tapped you with the nickname "Steamboat Willie"? "Fish" was a steamboat nut in action; she was Spartan in her use of words. Instead of talking a lot, she did a lot. In the two years I worked with her on the str. MISSISSIPPI QUEEN, I got to be her friend. We went ashore together twice that I recall: once on a long walk from Dubuque across the bridge to Illinois and back. With those long legs, she could walk fast and I had to save my breath just to keep up with her. Another time, Debbie and I cruised on the str. NATCHEZ, laughing in the sunshine. She was a fine steamboater and a fine friend. Debbie Fischbeck is the only friend who came to see me when I was laid up in the VA Hospital in NOLA.
Is it just a coincidence that I am planning to go to sea on cargo ships, just as Fish did when she finished her steamboating days?
Captain Don, please post the photo of Fish and me on the swing of the MQ.
Flatboat Bela
Topic starter
01/07/2007 4:44 pm
Fish Fotos
"... please post the photo of Fish and me on the swing of the MQ." Bela.
Here's a link to that pic and more:
Willie and Buster's Whirlwind Tour of the World - Fish Box
Topic starter
02/04/2008 8:34 pm
Fish Gone a Year
DEBORAH ANN "FISH" FISCHBECK has been gone a year today.
http://groups.msn.com/WillieandBustersWhirlwindTouroftheWorld/fishbox.msnw
Topic starter
03/04/2009 6:10 pm
Two Years Toward Eternity
Fish has been gone two years, already. She was Neptune's Daughter. Oh, how the time does fly.
See:
Willie and Buster's Whirlwind Tour of the World - Fish Box
Topic starter
02/04/2010 1:06 pm
Three Years
Three years have passed, and though the pain of her loss has eased, the memories of the Fish are still as clear and vivid as always.
Topic starter
02/04/2011 1:58 pm
Four Years...
Four years ago, today, Deborah Anne Fischbeck, "The Fish", died. She was the "Queen of the MISSISSIPPI QUEEN", "Nature's Fine Art", "Neptune's Daughter"....
02/04/2011 2:20 pm
The thing I remember most about Deborah Fishbeck is how she loved being outside. she loved to sleep in her sleeping bag out behind the Pilot House on beautiful nights. I can still hear her voice and see that red hair blowing in the wind.
Topic starter
02/04/2012 12:39 pm
Five Years Ago...
Remembering Deborah Anne Fischbeck, affectionately-known as "Fish", who died on this day five years ago.....
Flame-haired beauty who loved the sea, rivers, and all things nautical. An Honor Graduate, Cum Laude, of Towson University, who, after graduation, became a beloved member of the early crew of the Steamboat MISSISSIPPI QUEEN. Sailed at sea and was often called "Neptune's Daughter". Bright, witty, intelligent, and spoiling for adventure... "she was nature's fine art".
Miss ya, Fish....
Johnny Dew. "Our son," Fish called him.
Topic starter
08/04/2013 6:05 pm
Been Six Years...
The Fish has been gone six years this past Tuesday, 02 April 2013. Her passing was not forgotten by any means... we were away from the computer, but flowers and sentiments were sent to her mother, Sara, who also celebrated her 95th birthday on the same date her beloved daughter died.
Topic starter
02/04/2014 4:31 pm
Seven Years....
Another year has rolled swiftly by, and today marks the seventh year that the Fish has passed from this Earth. Though the years become dimmer with each passing one, the memory of the beautiful, flame-haired beauty, the "Queen of the MISSISSIPPI QUEEN", has not diminished.
Topic starter
02/04/2015 3:02 pm
Eight Years....
Eight swift years, today, have flown since Deborah "Fish" Fischbeck left this life. Fish love "Old Johnny Dew"... her favorite tune.
Topic starter
02/04/2016 1:13 pm
Nine Short Years...
Deborah Anne Fischbeck, best known as "The Fish" has been gone none short years, today.
"Sometimes when the twilight's fading, in tune with the night wind's play, Will you think of Neptune's daughter on the ocean far away?"
Topic starter
02/04/2017 4:56 pm
Ten Years and Still Counting....
Deborah Anne Fischbeck, best known as "Fish" has been gone ten years today....
Topic starter
03/04/2018 2:49 pm
Eleven Years Without the Fish.
Deborah Anne Fischbeck, best known as "Fish" has been gone eleven years ... Here's a recently discovered photo of the Fish at one of her favorite free-time occupations - reading. As soon as she returned to her mother's home in Perry Hall, MD, and just a few days before she died, Fish opened an account at the local Public Library.
Topic starter
02/04/2019 2:46 pm
Remembering Deborah Anne "Fish" Fischbeck on the 12th anniversary of her passing.
Remembering Deborah Anne "Fish" Fischbeck on the 12th anniversary of her passing. Fish sent me this humorous story about an incident on the MQ written on her last birthday, 15 December 2006. Crew members of the day will understand and appreciate her candor:
I was on the MQ from 1977 to '79, and I was also the relief galley supervisor. Had to do the maid thing to make some actual money with not many hours. I was terrible at it, but kept my passengers entertained. What was that old miserable f*cker pilots' name, the one that hated females? I used to raid the waiter's pot stashes and make those cookies and brownies. Had to send regular ones up to the bridge, but one evening I had a batch of the potent ones cooling on a rack and he came into the galley and loaded up a big-assed plate of them saying, "The wheelhouse ain't going to get cheated this time", in this raspy voice. I told him that batch was "tough", to "take the ones off the other tray", but he just smirked and left with them. It was one of the worst pea-souper nights I could remember on the river- I kept putting my hand in front of my face and couldn't see it. I was so nervous I was nauseated thinking we were going to have a wreck or I was going to get fired, or both. Kept asking the guys who were going up there if he was eating them and they said he was wolfing them down. Didn't want to get out of my sleeping bag next-o-dark-30, but when I saw him later that day he said, “Sure enjoyed those cookies, girlie”... the only civil words he ever spoke to me.
Topic starter
02/04/2020 2:33 pm
Thirteen Years... Still Remembering the Fish.
Thirteen years have quickly passed since Deborah Anne "The Fish" Fischbeck died on this date, 02 April 2007.
Topic starter
02/04/2021 5:37 am
Today, Friday, 02 April 2021, is the 14th anniversary of the death of Deborah Anne "Fish" Fischbeck. A day has not passed during the time that encompasses fourteen years that I haven't missed the Fish.
Topic starter
02/04/2022 12:32 pm
In loving memory of Deborah Anne "The Fish" Fischbeck on the 15th Anniversary of her passing. She was, in the words of the poet, "Nature's fine art..."