age 95, of Hammond, passed away Saturday, February 18, 2017. Friends may visit with the family on Thursday, February 23, 2017 from 3:00-7:00 PM at the Solan Pruzin Funeral Home 14 Kennedy Ave Schererville, IN. Funeral services will be held on Friday, February 24, 2017 at 12:00 PM at the funeral home. Betty will be laid to rest at Memory Lane Cemetery Schererville, IN. The family requests in lieu of flowers donations in Betty's honor be made to the Humane Society Calumet Area 421 45 ^th st. Munster, IN 46321 and/or Haven House Domestic Violence House PO Box 508 Hammond, IN 46375.

Grandma Betty is a woman that could not be shone simply in one light.  As one her granddaughters, I reflect on the last 40 years of her life.
She took on many roles in her life for the time that I knew her.
She was a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and a great-grandmother to her family.
She had a successful career in banking, devoted herself to leadership roles in church, women's shelter, human society, senior games, etc., played solitaire, did endless crossword puzzles, made crafts, baked wonderful desserts like strawberry Schaum Torte, Christmas Stollen, homemade ice cream, shell Christmas trees, annual Christmas Eve dinners for Grandpa's December 24 birthday from Welch's Sparkling grape juice to real wine, making clothes (we made one shirt together), always had her Polaroid camera nearby, got any stain under the sun out.
She let me play piano endlessly (spent many Sundays showing me chords and keys on the piano), Chinese Checkers.
She was a spendthrift and valued money through wise savings and prudent spending.   She understood money and valued it.  She gave to her church, charities like the Humane Society, and to her family.
I had an early curiosity to travel and language from all the National Geographic magazines that stacked in the living room, all the hotel toiletries that filled the bathroom cabinet, countless dolls that I collected throughout my childhood from all the places that she and Grandpa would travel to places that I would eventually go and experience in my own time and places that I would eventually give little gifts back in her elder years.
There was always a fascinating place to go, to plan for, to look forward to, and to relive when sharing stories back home.  A curious mind indeed.
She always had a balanced meal and surfed the Sunday paper for coupons to plan meals for the week.  There is no doubt that as her granddaughter, I credit her with being a feminist before the era of feminism was ripe.
She had a strong voice in all roles that she held – a voice that righted a wrong and went toe to toe whenever need be.
She let me know it was always ok to speak up, to ask questions even the uncomfortable ones.  She would say "Always be a lady" and yet she was the one "wearing the pants".
In her last 4 years, she met and got to see her beautiful granddaughter Ida who I think is just old enough to remember her and her favorite twin bed in the side room that she liked to play in.
As I explained to Ida, "Grandma Betty has gone to live with the angels way up in the sky.  She will visit in dreams and give a kiss and leave a beauty mark behind on you when you wake up."
New adventure indeed.

Mother helped her parents operate the Milwaukee family bakery, Thuering Bakery, in a nearly all German neighborhood.
She graduated from Milwaukee West Division HS in 1937.  She was 15 years old.
She worked in the WWII years in the Milwaukee Board of Education
Mother and Dad married on April 13, 1944.
Dad served the majority of WWII in the Pacific Theatre in the Signal Corps, becoming an officer in 1943…..44.
Mother was a GI Bill wife 1947-49 on the grounds of Camp Randall, U. of Wisconsin Madison. Living in a tiny 1940 vintage trailer during brutally cold temps in Madison Winters was no "picnic."

Rick was born in December, 1947; Ronald in November, 1948.
Dad found employment as an electric Engineer with NIPSCO in Summer, 1949.
Mother was a fulltime homemaker filling every volunteer job that existed in Hessville, all the den mother jobs in Cub Scouts, grade school homeroom Mother.
While sounding strange today, in the1950's, most Moms and Dads performed in Grade School Talent Shows multiple times per year..
While this sounds really boring "today," 1950's kids thoroughly enjoyed their Mom's and Dad's performances, some excellent, some not so excellent.  Even as a grade school child, you had to admire the courage it took for all these Mom's and Dad's to perform before hundreds of kids and other parents
When Ronald entered 7th grade at Morton Jr Hi, Mother took a position at the Calumet National Bank (today it is 1st Midwest Bank), 1961 – 86.
She first worked at  the Executive Secretary to CNB President, Jimmy Meyer.  After Jimmy Meyer retired in 1970's, Mother then worked in the Mortgage Loan Dept, first in the Main Office location, later in the Mortgage Loan location on US 30 maybe half mile East of US 41

Intertwined in working at CNB, Mother earned an Associate Degree in 1975 at Calumet College of St Joseph, and a Diploma from Ohio St University in 1978 in the National School of Real Estate Finance of the ABA (American Bankers Association).

While Mother earned her Associate Degree from Calumet College of St Joseph, no one for over thirty years ever bothered to mail her diploma to her.
I set out to get my Mother's 1975 Assoc Degree Diploma and her commemorative brick to be laid in a special ceremony in their designated commemorative brick area on the college's grounds
The Bureaucratic Red Tape to secure these two items nearly broke my spirit.  No one for over two years ever broke thru the Red Tape.
I will cut to the quick:  a message I had left countless times for an employee somehow wound up on College President  Dan Lowery's cell ph.  He called me within 24 hrs, proceeded to secure her 1975 diploma and put together her special commemorative brick laying ceremony within a couple months. There are no words I can express to convey my thanks to President Lowery.for his personal intervention.
Customary for the1950's and 60's, my Mother and Dad attended every single baseball game Ronald and I ever played from age 8 thru 17 and Mother attended all grade school function parents were invited to attended.  They attended all Ronald's and Rick's high school football games.

On Rick's side of family, granddaughters living in Highland Tara and Ashley were born in 1977 and 1984.  On Ron's side of family, in Nashville, Indiana, granddaughter Aubrey was born in 1976 and grandson Ross in 1979.
Tara has a ggd (great granddaughter) Ida born in 2013, Ross has a ggd Addision born in 2004, Aubrey has a ggd August born in 2012.
Now as Grma and Grpa, Mother and Dad attended all Tara's and Ashley's elementary school activities for Grandparents.  Mother and Dad attended many of their softball, basketball, and soccer games.
For over 30 years, Mother and Dad visited over 70 countries and most of our 50 states by ocean and river cruise boat, plane, and bus.
When Dad passed in 2002, Mother's spent hours with several dogs the latest of which was Rex
Mother devoted many, many hours working with Haven House, as the Treasurer of the Morton HS Adult Athletic Booster Club, working on many, many committees with her church the Highland Immanuel Church of Christ, and working on other social organizations I am forgetting to list here

Mother was a warm caring  wife, Mother, Grandmother, friend to many who would instantly and  fiercely come to the defense of any family member or close friend she felt needed defending.
She was 100% German. Dad was 100% German. Germans are like Marines. Facing insurmountable odds only increases their motivation and resolve.
She was the original old-fashioned Mother and friend who did not care at all if she was the only person left defending her husband, children, grandchildren, family members, or friends.