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Research for Suzanne E. Frentz '66, professor and former associate dean of communication and fine arts at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angles, often began in front of her TV on weekends watching videotapes and monitoring social trends on such venerable soap operas as "The Young and the Restless" and "Guiding Light."
The noted pop culture expert and author of Staying Tuned: Contemporary Soap Opera Criticism, once told a Los Angeles Times reporter, “I guess in the grand scheme of knowledge (the study of soap operas) comes way after the Greeks. It doesn’t have a huge body of knowledge, but it is a genre that people have embraced since Dickens.”
Known for her unique ability to connect with students, Frentz taught at, over the course of her career, lMU, the University at Albany, N.Y., Purdue University, California State Long Beach and at Wichita State.
Suzanne Frentz died Sept. 18 in Marina Del Rey, Calif.
