Alice Fienning

Alice Fienning, née Fidlar, 86, passed away on July 28, 2025. She was born in Terre Haute, Indiana and grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana, where she graduated from Shortridge High School in 1956. She received her BA degree in Education (teaching French, German and English) when she graduated from Ball State University in 1960 and began teaching French and German at West High School in Rockford, Illinois.

Alice met William (Bill) Fienning when visiting friends in Albuquerque, but continued her teaching career. Eventually, they married in 1976; she retired and moved to Albuquerque. She volunteered as a docent at the Rio Grande Zoo (now part of the BioPark) for nine years, and was active in the Alliance Francaise of Albuquerque, serving as Treasurer for many years.

She loved classical music (especially Mozart and Bach), attending opera and theater performances, art museums, reading, foreign travel, good food and wine and old friends. She is survived by her husband, Bill Fienning and several cousins back East.

Alice loved languages and she added Italian after she moved to Albuquerque and married Bill. This helped when they visited Italy. Alice liked to visit museums of all types. She and Bill included museums in their trips, both domestic and abroad. Her interests were quite eclectic, including a visit to the catacombs under Paris, the Louvre, Smithsonian and the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (in Vienna). These are just a few of the museums she and Bill liked to visit.

Alice loved a wide range of music. Together, they supported and attended the Santa Fe Opera for at least one performance almost every summer. Their trips to New York City included the Metropolitan Opera and Broadway musicals.

Alice also enjoyed cooking and was very good at it. She would prepare a dinner for usually six people for whom Bill would perform his strange and unusual magic as the entertainment. Because she and Bill shared so many interests in common, they would attend each other's topic-related gatherings. Bill always attended her French gatherings, and he took her to his magic conventions; she became a member of the Psychic Entertainers Association to which Bill belongs.

Alice was interested in teaching for her entire life. She was beloved by her high school students in Rockford. She even tried to improve Bill's pronunciation of foreign words with only moderate success. But Bill was always available to help her with computer problems, his area of expertise.

Cremation is being handled by FRENCH Funerals and Cremations.