Vera E. Schwarz, 90, of Elwood, passed away May 4, 2013, at Elwood Care Center in Elwood.
Vera Elizabeth Hock was born to Fred and Helena Maria (Baumgartner) Hock, in Waterloo, Iowa, on May 14, 1922. She was baptized at Trinity American Church in Waterloo. When she was a year old, Vera’s family moved to a farm northwest of Strawberry Point, Iowa, and lived in that area for many years. Vera graduated from Strawberry Point High School in 1939, where she received normal school training in order to obtain her elementary school teaching certificate on her 18th birthday. She then taught country schools in the Strawberry Point area for the next 10 years. One of the schools she taught in was one her mother attended as a child, near St. Sebald Lutheran Church.
Until 1947, Vera was able to teach on a “war certificate,” but that summer she enrolled at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, in order to renew her regular teaching certificate. There she met a young soon-to-be seminarian from North Dakota, Richard Schwarz.
On July 29, 1951, Vera and Richard Walter Schwarz of Hazen, N.D., were married at St. Sebald Lutheran Church by Vera’s brother, and they spent the next year living in a small trailer at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. While Dick, as Vera called him, finished his final year of seminary, Vera taught at a local rural school. The couple’s first parish was Zion Lutheran Church in Kulm, N.D. The family then moved to Parkston, S.D., in 1957, where they served for 12 ½ years. A call to St. John’s Lutheran Church moved them to Eustis for seven years, and then they moved to Long Lake, S.D. Vera and Richard retired to Elwood in 1988. Vera and Richard had four children, Jonathan, Kathryn, Joel and Steven.
Vera was a faithful servant of the Lord in her ministry as a pastor’s wife. She accompanied her husband much of the time on his pastoral calls as well as teaching Sunday school, conducting Bible Studies and ministering to their congregations with a warm and caring personality as well as with her wonderful cooking and baking talents. Vera’s glazed donuts were sinfully delicious and are remembered fondly by all who were able to enjoy them.
Vera’s great sense of humor and enthusiastic laughter will also not soon be forgotten. She loved to make you smile. She was known as the card lady at the Elwood Senior Center where she recycled greeting cards for a number of years. She loved crossword puzzles and word games, but one of her great joys in life was playing UNO with the grandkids…sometimes she even let them win.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Pastor R.W. Schwarz, on March 19, 2013; her parents; her sister and brother-in-law, Evelyn and Orville Wandersee; and her brother and sister-in-law, Fred and Fern Hock.
Vera is survived by her sons, Jonathan (Carolyn) Schwarz, of Lincoln, Joel (Maria) Schwarz, of Layton, Utah, and Steve Schwarz, of Arapahoe; her daughter, Kathy Gundell, of Eustis; eight grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren, Jeremy (Brooke) Schwarz and Gavin, both of Lincoln, Jennifer (Dayne) Crawford and Brooklyn, both of Goodyear, Ariz., Amanda (Bryant) Brockmeier and Lane Baxter, Evan, Reid, and Jeannae, all of Eustis, James (Gwen) Gundell and Turner and Jaxson, all of Gothenburg, Christopher Schwarz, of Sioux Falls, S.D., Adam (Jessica) Schwarz and Jaleigh and Reese, all of Suffolk, Va., Danielle (fiancé, Scott Woodstock) Schwarz and Samuel Schwarz, both of Layton, Utah; her brother, Pastor A.L. (Gerda) Hock, of Strawberry Point, Iowa; her sisters-in-law, Pauline (Melvin) Brinkmeyer, of Eureka, S.D., and Eva (Richard) Newkirk, of Gehanna, Ohio; as well as many nieces, nephews, friends and relatives.
Memorials are suggested to the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America or the American Diabetes Association . Online condolences to the family may be shared at reynoldslove funeralhome.com.
Funeral Celebration of Life Service will be at 10:30 a.m., Wednesday, May 8, at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Eustis with Pastor Harold Laursen officiating. Burial will be at the St. John’s Lutheran East Cemetery at Eustis. Visitation will be from 5-7 p.m., today, at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Eustis. Reynolds-Love Funeral Home in Lexington is in charge of arrangements.