Obituary of Marie Schadler

Marie Elnora Schadler, lived her life with zest When Marie Elnora Glass Schadler celebrated her 90th birthday three years ago, her pastor and her funeral director both came to the party. "I've got the preacher and the funeral director here," she told her guests. "We could just go ahead and have my funeral." The joke typified the zest with which the Walton resident lived her life. Mrs. Schadler, who died Monday at her home, was born in her parent's home in the southern Kenton County community of Ricedale. She walked two miles each way to attend the one-room Banklick School. For middle school, she walked a mile and a half each way to catch a bus to the Independence School on Madison Pike. She grew up in the New Banklick Creek Baptist Church, and after baptism in Banklick Creek, became a member in 1930. She would attend regularly the rest of her life and was the church's oldest living member before she died. At 16, she started dating Mason Gilbert Schadler, whose cousin had married her sister. In 1933, her mother allowed them to marry. They lived as tenant farmers until 1943, when they bought a 30-acre farm near Walton, where Mrs. Schadler lived until her death. Her husband worked for General Electric, and she raised chickens and strawberries for extra income. "Mom would hang the chickens on a clothes line, cut their heads off and dip them into a pot of scalding water," her daughter, Pamela Barnes of Independence, said. "Then we would all take the feathers off. We hated that job." Mrs. Schadler made most of her daughters' dresses, shorts and tops out of the bags the chicken feed came in. From 1946 to 1960, she also earned money sewing the stitches on baseballs at home. She lost that job when the manufacturers outsourced the work to Costa Rica. In 1960, Mason Schadler jacked up their house, dug out a basement and added indoor plumbing and a furnace. When he retired in 1975, he bought a camper, and the couple began vacationing across the nation. They would eventually visit all of the lower 48 states. When he died in 1988, she was grief-stricken. "They were joined at the hip, I think," her daughter said. But she learned to cope on her own, and make her own decisions. One day, she shot and killed two moles with the pistol her husband had taught her to use. Until recently, she hosted about 50 people for family get-togethers at Christmas and Easter. She always had a deck of cards on hand. "She was a super, super nice person," said her son, Fred Schadler of Erlanger. "If you wanted to tell her to go jump out of an airplane, she would probably try it. She would trust you." Mrs. Schadler was a member of Woodmen of the World and a former member of Eastern Star Bradford Lodge. Other survivors include daughters, Gilberta Kidwell of Walton and Marilyn Young of Erlanger; eight grandchildren, 24 great-grandchildren and a great-great-grandson. Services will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at New Banklick Baptist Church. Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday and from 9 to 10 a.m. Saturday at the church. Burial will be in Independence Cemetery. Memorials are suggested to New Banklick Baptist Church, 10719 Banklick Road, Walton, Ky. 41094; or Redwood School, 71 Orphanage Road, Fort Mitchell, Ky. 41017.