Pauline Gerhardt “Fritzie” or “Polly” (Rosenblatt) Tovrea, the first of the six children of Paul “Pete” Gerhardt and Dora Cordelia (Leach) Rosenblatt, was born to her pioneer family on April 1, 1905, in Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona Territory. Her maternal grandmother had walked behind covered wagons west to Colorado in the 1860s and then later to Arizona Territory. Her father came to Prescott in 1892.
In the 1920s, there was always a party at the Rosenblatts, with four beautiful and popular daughters. The births to come of another sister and a brother would complete the family. P. G. “Pete” Rosenblatt and his wife Delia opened their house routinely for social events. The girls were musically talented and formed a band together with friends. Individually, they performed at social events throughout Prescott.
Pauline, known as “Fritzie” or “Polly” to her family and friends, graduated from Prescott High School in 1923 and the University of Arizona in 1927. She was a member of Mu Phi Epsilon National Music Honorary and Pi Beta Phi Sorority, as well as being active for many years in Zonta International.
After graduating from college, she taught school in Pearce, Cochise County, Arizona. A gifted pianist, she was awarded a scholarship to the Julliard School of Music in New York City. She declined the offer because she had fallen in love with J. Howard Tovrea, whom she married on December 28, 1929, in Prescott.
While her husband was stationed at Casa Grande National Monument, which was the Southwest headquarters for the Park Service, Fritzie wrote as a correspondent for the Arizona Daily Star newspaper. Later the couple moved to the Panama Canal Zone where Howard was an engineer working to make the canal works bomb proof. Fritzie continued to work as a journalist for newspapers in Panama and the U.S.
After the war, she and Howard moved to Seattle, Washington, where they founded the Olympic Blueprint Company. They owned and operated the business for twenty-five years until their retirement and their return to Carefree and Prescott, Arizona, in 1969.
Over the years of their marriage, Fritzie and Howard bred, raised and showed Scottish Terriers, German Shorthair dogs and Polled Hereford cattle. They won many championship awards for the quality of their animals.
The couple was described as a perfect match as they worked, hunted, fished, sailed and golfed together. Howard died in 1979, and Fritzie died on June 10, 1994. Her ashes are inurned at Mountain View Cemetery in Prescott.
Pauline's grandmother Dora Leach (Russell) Bubar, mother Dora Cordelia (Leach) Rosenblatt Walker and sisters Dora Virginia (Rosenblatt) Heap, Louise Caroline (Rosenblatt) Lynch and Bertha Louise (Rosenblatt) Scholey Boone are also commemorated in the Territorial Women’s Memorial Rose Garden.
Donor: Rosenblatt Family Members, November 2004
Photo Located: Yavapai County People and Family Collection, Folder - Tovrea Family
Updated: 5/30/2015, D. Sue Kissel
