Bertha Schoen

SCHOEN, BERTHA "TOOTS"
Seymour

Toots (Bertha) Ruth Schoen, age 91 passed away Thursday evening, June 9th, 2011 at Appleton Medical Center. She was born December 14, 1919 daughter of the late Frank and Bertha Griepp. On October 5, 1938, she was united in marriage to Clifford Schoen. He preceded her in death January 20, 1997.

Mom, in later years was characterized as a very sweet, tiny lady. Tiny? Yes, she was towered over by much taller siblings as well as her own daughter and grandchildren who treasured the day they could pass her in height. Sweet, yes, she had no one to make peace with neither in death nor in life. She was a patient teacher and a perpetual student. Handling numbers was easy for her. Even with dementia, she still gently helped the nursing home admitting RN with some figures three weeks ago. Gentle teacher: she always took her granddaughter home on Christmas Eve to help prepare the feast and passed on her beautiful gift of hospitality and giving. She was a striver, always seeking to make things better for others. And she had a tremendous sense of justice, always seeking to be fair, honest, truthful and correct...even if it meant a multiple mile trip to return a minor mistake.

Toots was named after her mother Bertha, at birth, and called Tootie or Toots by her siblings in her youth; the name stuck. She completed high school with honors and her beautiful soprano voice led her to key roles in the school operettas. She married Clifford Schoen at the Little Brown Church in the Vale. Moving to Seymour, she was the bookkeeper for the Seymour Creamery, started her own H & R Block franchise and was a postal clerk. She even took up taxes again after her husband Cliff passed away in 1996, in the Vernon Lubinski law firm for 5-6 years. Someone mentioned this was ahead of her times. I did not think so. I just thought she was the best in mothers there can be. Sweet, patient, honest, loving; student, teacher, striver, dedicated to God and yes tiny, yet a life fulfilled. No regrets. No more pain. She can hear again and get to know her son, as well as live eternally with the son of God. Maybe he'll let her in on why she had to lose 6 inches on her already short 5'3" height.

Survivors include her daughter Susan (Bill) Shimon, Appleton; grandchildren: Laurie (Tim) Quernemoen; Jonathan (Katie) Shimon; great-grandchildren: Willow, Audrey and Violet; one brother Fritz Griepp; sisters- in-law: Irma Schoen and Muriel Griepp.

She was preceded in death by a son Frank and twelve siblings.

Friends may call Sunday, June 12, 2011 at the Muehl-Boettcher Funeral Home, Seymour from 4-6 PM and Monday, June 13, 2011 at Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Seymour from 9:30 AM until services at 11:00 AM with Pastor Roland Lindeman officiating, burial in the parish cemetery, followed by lunch at church.

Online condolences may be express at www.muehlboettcher.com