Terry Anne Meeuwsen Friedrich

Papers of the day called her a De Pere girl as she put on the crown; De Pere High School, where she was homecoming queen and a three-year cheerleader, is the clearest local lock.

She was the eldest of four, with a father at Wisconsin Public Service and a mother at the telephone company and later the superintendent’s office. Infoboxes often list a De Pere birth on March 2, 1949; some accounts say Green Bay, the usual Fox Valley hospital shorthand. She attended St. Norbert College for music and drama without taking a degree, then left to sing with the New Christy Minstrels from 1969 to 1971. Back home she won Miss Appleton and Miss Wisconsin in 1972 and Atlantic City in 1973, taking both talent and swimsuit. Fellow contestants that year included Cynthia Sikes (Miss Kansas, later of St. Elsewhere) and Jane Badler (later of V).

From 1978 to 1986 she co-hosted WTMJ’s A New Day with Pete Wilson in Milwaukee. Then came Virginia Beach and, from 1993, the chair next to Pat Robertson on The 700 Club. With husband Andy Friedrich she adopted three girls from Ukraine and launched Orphan’s Promise in 2006; the ministry later claimed work in dozens of countries. Andy died of Parkinson’s on July 29, 2023. She has seven children, most adopted, and published several books beginning with Christmas Memories (Thomas Nelson, 1996). St. Norbert kept her in the same town for a college stretch; coming-of-age and the 1973 walk belong to De Pere High.