"Billie" A. Schuning (1928-2000)

SCHUNING

Posted By: Patrick Turner (email)
Date: 2/25/2003 at 22:28:35

Thursday, November 23, 2000

In Memory: "Billie " A. Schuning

Wilhelmina "Billie" Ann Schuning, 72, of Council Bluffs died November 19, 2000 at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

She was born on July 27, 1928, to Herman and Helen J. Hoeppner (known as Dick and June), on the family farm six miles south of Shelby in Pleasant Township, Pottawattamie County, Iowa.

She was named Wilhelmina Ann after her grandmother Minnie Hoeppner and was given the nickname Billie Ann. She was baptized and confirmed in the Shelby Lutheran Church.

Billie attended grade school just west of the family farm at Pleasant Township School #7. In the fall of 1941 she entered Shelby High School where she graduated with the Class of 1945. After finishing school in Omaha, Billie worked for Cogley Clinic in Council Bluffs and at Swanson Foods in Omaha.

In 1950, she married Delmar "Pete" Schuning from Minden, where they lived after their marriage. In 1952, Billie gave birth to a son, Ricky Dell. Ricky died of diabetes three years later, and later that year her husband Pete was killed when the road grader he operated was struck by a train.

In 1956, Billie moved to the San Francisco Bay area of California where family relatives lived. In 1960 she met and married Thomas McKinzey and lived in the Richmond, California area until Tom's retirement in 1980.

They moved back to Iowa in 1981, lived in Neola and later moved to Minden where they lived until Tom's death in 1987.

Billie worked as a volunteer and a switchboard operator at Jennie Edmundson Hospital for many years, rekindling old acquaintances. One of those acquaintances was with a lifelong friend, Kenny Schuning, whom she married in 1993.

They lived in Council Bluffs where Billie joined St. John Lutheran Church. They enjoyed life to its fullest, attending dances and polka feasts in numerous midwest communities as Billie had done with her family in Minden, Neola and Avoca in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.

Billie was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997, which metastasized into her bones in 1998. Her cancer was in remission when she suffered a stroke last February. She had another stroke in May. She was undergoing chemotherapy and plasma exchange treatments when she suffered another stroke November 19 and died later that day.

Billie is survived by her husband Kenny Schuning of Council Bluffs; two brothers, Robert Hoeppner of Casper Wyoming and Richard Hoeppner of Council Bluffs; and many nieces and nephews.

Visitation with the family was held Tuesday evening at Knutson Funeral Home in Avoca. Funeral service was to be held Wednesday morning at St. John's Lutheran Church with the Rev. E.A. Hering officiating. Burial was to be in the Minden Cemetery, followed by a lunch at the Minden United Church of Christ.