Shirley Schmitt

Shirley Schmitt - SCHMITT, ELISE" Entered into rest peacefully at her home in Santa Rosa, CA on February 26, 2010. We lost a very-very good human being. She was born Shirley Elise Buchthal on December 7, 1923 in Chicago, IL. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, she always celebrated her birthday on December 8. Elise met John Schmitt in 1946. They fell in love and were married only a few weeks later. They remained together for sixty-three years and together raised five wonderful children. Elise had many admirable qualities which endeared her to everyone who knew her. She was loving and compassionate towards family, friends, acquaintances and even strangers. She was a kind and concerned mother to her children, always consoling in their disappointments and warmly happy in their successes. Her nurturing qualities were generously shared with others as well, so that she became very much a mother to her nieces and nephews, her children"s friends and spouses and her two grandchildren and three great grandchildren. She was generous with her humor also, always sharing laughter with John and her children and her extended family. Few people are as genuinely concerned with the welfare of others as Elise was. No matter how briefly she might have known someone, she always inquired as to their well being. She was dedicated to the essence of her Faith in that she was truly more concerned with the welfare of others than that of herself. Elise is predeceased by her husband, John, in October 2009. She is survived by her sister Lillian Shwank; children Randi Barrett, Gloria Haley Smith, John C. Schmitt, Jean Tornquist, Diane Parks and Debra Condiotti; grandchildren Gavin Haley and Victoria Nancy; and great grandchildren Olivia Haley, Alexis Nancy and Trevor Haley. She was a loving mother-in-law to Don Smith, Steve Tornquist and Jack Barrett, a wonderful grandmother-in-law to Melanie Haley and Christian Nancy and a loving aunt to Kevin and Brian Schmitt and numerous nieces and nephews.