Pauline Ruth (Schoneman) SCHONEMAN

SCHONEMAN, WORTHINGTON, DEUEL, PRUSS, JOHNSON, GOFF, LIGHTBODY, BRUGMAN, STENLUND, DICKMAN, BEALE, MABB, STILES

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 2/10/2024 at 13:06:54

April 14, 1929 ---- April 22, 2018

Pauline Schoneman, 89, of Thornton, Iowa passed away Sunday, April 22, 2018, at Iowa Speciality Hospital, Belmond, IA. Funeral services will be held 10:30 a.m., Friday, April 27, 2018, at Richland Lutheran Church in Thornton with Rev. Robert Harting presiding. Interment will be at Richland Lutheran Cemetery, Thornton. Visitation will be 5:00 – 7:00 p.m., Thursday at Retz Funeral Home, 207 N. 2nd Street Thornton.

Pauline Ruth (Schonemann) Schoneman was born April 14, 1929, on the family farm near Thornton, a daughter of William and Grace (Worthington) Schonemann. She was baptized and confirmed in the Richland Lutheran Church in Thornton, IA. She attended country school and Thornton Public School, graduating in the class of 1946. She attended Iowa State Teachers College in Cedar Falls before starting her teaching career in Dumont, IA. She later taught in Garner, IA, where she met the love of her life and future husband, Marion Schoneman. They were united in marriage on December 24, 1950, at Richland Lutheran Church in Thornton while Marion was on a short leave from the US Army.

After Marion's discharge, he and Polly took over the family farm near Thornton and raised lots of cattle and hogs. In 1954, Polly was diagnosed with a form of cancer (Osteosarcoma) while she was four months pregnant with their daughter, Pam. She was diagnosed again with lung cancer in 1956 and 1963. She was a very proud 63 year cancer survivor. They moved into Thornton in 1983. Polly taught kindergarten and then reading at Meservey-Thornton Elementary School until she retired in 1990. She had a great love for teaching and for helping her students; many continue to remember and thank her today.

Avid Iowa State Cyclone fans, Polly and Marion attended every home football game for over 35 years and enjoyed the tailgating and fellowship shared with friends and family before each game in Ames, IA. Polly was a life-time member of Richland Lutheran Church. She was a member of the Thornton Federated Women's Club, Ladies Aid, and she tutored students in the summers. She loved reading, doing cross words, sewing, scrap-booking for her granddaughters, and baking traditional family foods like sugar cookies and Danish Pastry. A dedicated wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and sister, Polly traveled around Northern Iowa, Minnesota, Ames, and Omaha to see her family and their activities. Polly had been at Concord Care Center in Garner, IA, since 2013; she loved the staff there and often said it was just where she was meant to be. When Marion passed in 2016, she assured family she knew she would join him when the time was right.

Surviving family members include her daughter: Pam (Craig) Deuel, Worthington, MN; granddaughters: Sara Jo (Josh) Pruss and their children, Josie and Ike, Omaha, NE; Abbey (Brandon) Johnson, Omaha, NE; Sara and Abbey's father: Darrell Goff, Garner, IA; sister Judie (Larry) Lightbody, Thornton; brother-in-law: Marvin Schoneman, Garner; sister-in-law: Betty Brugman, Eden Prairie, MN; sister-in-law: Lora Mae Schoneman, Garner, IA; foreign exchange daughter: Sara Stenlund, Skelleftehamn, Sweden; special friend: Charlie Dickman, Thornton, IA; cousins, many nieces and nephews, and great nieces and nephews. Pauline is preceded in death by her husband, Marion, parents William and Grace, and her sisters Virginia (Jack) Beale, Shirley (Duane) Mabb, and Marian (Jack) Stiles.

Mason City Globe Gazette -- Mason City, IA
April 26, 2018