Frances M. Schmitt

Frances Schmitt, age 84, of 2400 W. 12th St., Hastings, Nebraska died Monday, February 16, 2009 at the Good Samaritan Village in Hastings.

Funeral services were held Saturday, 11:00 a.m., Febraury 21, 2009 at the First Congregational Untied Church of Christ in Pierre, South Dakota with the Rev. Susan Carr officiating. Interment was at Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Blunt, South Dakota.

Frances M. Schmitt was born August 30, 1924 to Margaret (Bucklin) and Samuel Smith in Selby, South Dakota. She departed this life on Monday, February 16, 2009 at the Good Samaritan Village in Hastings, Nebraska at the age of 84 years, 5 months and 16 days.

As she grew up, Frances lived in several northern South Dakota communities and graduated from Eagle Butte High School in 1942. Following graduation she enrolled at Northern State Teachers College at Aberdeen, South Dakota. She obtained a two-year teaching certificate and taught at Eagle Butte from 1944-1946. Between those two school years she spent the summer working on the "wing line" of the Renton Washington plant helping build three B-29 bombers each day. In the fall of 1946, she returned to Northern and completed her Bachelor of Science Degree in Education, majoring in Kindergarten-Primary Education.

Frances moved to Pierre in 1948, and taught at McKinley Elementary School for three years. On September 15, 1951 she married John G. Schmitt and became a farm wife on the farm between Blunt and Pierre. To this union one daughter, Tanya, was born. John was a partner in Ice Spraying Service and Frances very much enjoyed his love of flying. During the mid fifties, in addition to farming, John and Frances, together with John's sister and brother-in-law, Marilou and Earl Briggs, ran Briggs and Schmitt Implement the International Harvester Dealership in Pierre. John died July 11, 1964.

In the fall of 1967, Frances returned to teaching in Pierre. She taught three years at Buchanan Elementary and then transferred to Washington Elementary where she taught until retirement in 1987. Frances moved her home to Pierre in 1983, where she lived until moving to the Good Samaritan Village in Hastings, Nebraska in 2001 to be closer to her family.

Most of her years were spent teaching first grade. Teaching reading was her passion. She firmly believed that if you could help someone learn to read, you were giving them a key to the world. Her leadership roles and memberships in ACEI, PEA, SDEA, Delta Kappa Gamma, the Annie D. Tallent Club, International Reading Association, Retired Teachers, Pierre Literacy Service and Senior Kinship exemplified her love of teaching.

She was an avid bowler, an Eastern Star Past Matron, past 4-H leader and very involved in a host of church activities. She was a member of the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Pierre, and an associate member of First Congregational United Church of Christ in Hastings, Nebraska.

Preceding her in death were her parents; her husband; a brother, John Smith; and two infant sisters.

Surviving are her daughter and son-in-law, Tanya and Bill Lindsteadt of Hastings, Nebraska; grandchildren Jill, Jeni and Josh Lindsteadt; her aunt Helen Johnson of Plentywood, Montana; a brother and sister-in-law, Robert and Mary Smith of Plentywood, Montana; brother-in-law Earl Briggs of Rapid City, South Dakota, and many nieces and nephews.

Memorials are suggested to the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Pierre, or to the Pierre Education Foundation.

Williams Funeral Home
241 West 4th Avenue
Red Cloud, NE 68970

402-746-2500
williamsfuneralhomes@yahoo.com