Marie Schafer

Marie (Eberl) Schafer passed away March 30, 2010, at the Heritage House in Atlantic, Iowa, at the age of 92 years. She was born in Omaha on June 8, 1917, the daughter of Charles and Anne (Formanek) Eberl. Her mother died of pneumonia when Marie was four years old, after which she and her sister Anne moved to Lindsay, Nebraska, to live with their aunt and uncle, Bess and Ed Connelly. At age six her father died of a heart attack. Marie remained in Lindsay with Bess and Ed until graduating from high school in 1935.


After high school she held various jobs in Omaha for a couple of years, including being a nanny for a little girl. She then attended sewing school at the Vogue School of Design in Chicago. After she finished sewing school Marie and her sister Anne had a sewing and dress making shop in Omaha for two years until they both went to the Martin Nebraska Company to work in the war effort.


While at the Martin Nebraska Company, she met Louis Henry Schafer. They married on September 22, 1943. Their marriage was doubly blessed with the birth of twin sons, Robert and Ronald, and then four more sons: Louis Jr., William, Chris and Charles. Louis and Marie lived in Omaha for two years and then moved to the family farm north of Adair.


She was a long time member of Immanuel Lutheran Church, Lutheran Women's Missionary League, and the neighborhood Happy Hour Club.


Marie loved sewing, especially for her children and grandchildren. She also loved her cats and going to garage sales, but there was nothing she loved more than to have her sons stop in for a visit and a cup of coffee.


She is survived by all six sons and their mates: Robert and his wife, Janet, of Guthrie Center, Ronald and his wife, Lanette, of Panora, Louis Jr. and his wife, Judy, of New Providence, Iowa, Bill and Dianne, of Adair, Chris and his wife, Donna, of Adair and Charles and Lana of St. Petersburg, Florida. Also surviving Marie are seventeen grandchildren and twenty-three great grandchildren and one niece, Carleen McMurray, of Queen Creek, Arizona.


Marie was preceded in death by her husband, Louis; parents, Anne and Charles Eberl; aunt and uncle, Elizabeth and Edward Connelly; sister, Anne Vaccaro; three brothers, two in infancy and Frank at the age of eleven; sister-in-law, Eileen Behrends; and daughter-in-law, Betty Schafer.


Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m., Saturday, April 3, 2010, at the Immanuel Lutheran Church in Adair, Iowa. Visitation with family will be Friday, April 2, 2010, from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. at Hockenberry Funeral Home in Adair. Burial will be in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery, Adair.


Hockenberry Family Care, Adair, Iowa, is in charge of the arrangements.


Words from Marie:
"Thanks to all concerned and to all the survivors" - "Thanks for the memories"