Antoinette (Fraase) Babcock

Antoinette Babcock 

Antoinette Martha Babcock, 82, Buffalo, North Dakota, passed away on February 14th, 2025. Antoinette was born on January 19, 1943, and was the daughter of William and Margaret Fraase. She grew up with five siblings on a farm southwest of Buffalo, North Dakota. Antoinette knew at a very young age that she wanted to play the piano. After twelve years of taking lessons from Lenore Cunningham and Frank Manheimer she developed a love for the piano.  

After graduating from Buffalo High School, she applied to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. She graduated in 1966 with a degree in Applied Music and Piano Performance. During her senior year, she was awarded an Austrian government grant to study at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. While in Austria, she made her Vienna debut at the Palaix Palffy in 1968. A year later, Antoinette was awarded the Austrian Bosendorfer Prize, given to a young, promising pianist, by the Vienna Musileverein. She also recorded for Radio Austria. Antoinette’s grant was extended until 1970, where she graduated from the Mozarteum and received an Artist’s Diploma in Piano Performance.  

In May, 1970, Antoinette performed the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto with the Mozarteum Orchestra. A week before her concert, the handsome man she met in New York, Dr. William Babcock, sent her a telegram saying he would be in Salzburg for her performance. The couple was married in 1971 at St. John’s Church in Embden, North Dakota. They lived in Vancouver, BC, where Antoinette taught at a private school and gave piano lessons to many children. In 1980, the Babcocks moved back to Buffalo and built a home. Antoinette was hired as a music teacher at Chaffee, Sheldon, Enderlin, and Central Cass schools while continuing to give private piano lessons. She was also nominated by the ND Farm Bureau as Cass County Educator of the Year in 1995. In 2006, Antoinette retired from teaching, but Dr. Robert Jones from NDSU enticed her to be a pianist at the university. After ten years, she officially retired in 2016.  

Antoinette is survived by two brothers, Mark Fraase, Fargo, ND, and William (Jan) Fraase Edmond, OK; one sister, Stephanie (David) Baasch, Buffalo, ND; and several nieces, nephews, and great nieces and nephews and one great great nephew.

She was preceded in death by her husband, her parents, her brother Phillip (Marlys) Fraase, and her sister Gretchen (Edwin) Martin.  

A memorial service will be held at BankNorth Theatre - Central Cass School in Casselton, ND on March 9, 2025.  Visitation will be at 5 p.m., followed by the service at 6 p.m.  

West Funeral Home & Life Tribute Center

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