Barbara Joyce Schoenrock

Barbara Joyce Schoenrock was born on December 19, 1933 at Fairbury, Nebraska, the only child of Vernon Lewis Morris and Mildred Marie Morris. She grew to womanhood in Fairbury, helping her parents operate many restaurants through the hard times of the Depression and World War II, among them the Owl Lunch, the Green Lantern and Winslows. She was a 1951 honor graduate of Fairbury High School and attended Nebraska Wesleyan University on scholarship where she was associated with the Willard Sorority. She loved music and was an accomplished band member, piano and organ player. She started playing piano for the Fairbury Methodist Church at age 11. This began a lifetime of dedicated service playing piano and organ for many churches and religious events in Fairbury and Lincoln; the Fairbury Methodist Church, Saint Charles the Martyr Episcopal Church in Fairbury and Lincoln Lakeview Methodist Church, among many others. For many years in the 1960s and 1970s, she taught piano lessons to many young people in the Fairbury area, passing her love of music to succeeding generations. She was a talented bridge player and was an accomplished master of the American Contract Bridge League. She was a life member of the order of Eastern Star.

In 1953, she began public service in the office of the Nebraska Attorney General Clarence S. Beck in the administration of Governor Robert B. Crosby. In August 1954, she met Alvin Schoenrock of Fairbury. They were subsequently married at the Fairbury Methodist Church on April 3, 1955. To this union, two sons were born; Mark in September 1956, and Merrell in August 1959. Upon her marriage, she left Lincoln and moved to the Schoenrock family farm three miles west of Fairbury. For the next twenty years, she was a farm wife dedicated to the support of the family farm, ranch and grain bin business. In the 1970s, she and Alvin also operated the Fairbury Hotel, with a faithful clientele of hunters and construction workers who always stayed at the Fairbury Hotel whenever they were in town. She was always there for her sons’ school and athletic events and ensured that they received a sound education. She served many years in the mid 1960s as Fairbury Parent Teacher Association President.
In 1980, she and Alvin moved to Lincoln where they have made their home for the past 31 years. In retirement, she enjoyed her many friends of her morning coffee group and various church groups, and enjoyed many cultural events in Lincoln. She was a devoted Nebraska Cornhuskers supporter and loved Nebraska football. She attended many Nebraska home games before physically being unable to attend any longer.
She loved to travel, see new places and experience everything that life has to offer. She and her family travelled many different places throughout the United States to National Farmers Organization events; to Fort Bliss Texas and the American Southwest where her husband Alvin had been stationed with the United States Army; and to many places where her son Mark was stationed with the United States Army, among them Hawaii, Washington, DC, Virginia and St. Louis. For her and Alvin’s fiftieth wedding anniversary, they took a cruise to the Caribbean from Florida, visiting many places in Belize and Mexico.
She never knew a stranger, and could quickly become friends with anyone like she had known them her entire life. Family and friends were the love of her life.
She departed this mortal existence on September 11, 2011 at Tabitha hospice at Lincoln, Nebraska. The Tabitha staff quickly became family as she endeared herself to them, even in the last chapter of her life. A faithful and loving wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, she goes now to her eternal rest to be re-united with her parents, forebears, and numerous associates and friends who have pre-deceased her. She was a loving and caring daughter of a loving Heavenly Father who will be sorely missed by those she leaves behind here. Even though she has now left mortality, her legacy lives on in the lives of her family, and in the lives of numerous other people she touched. Her entire life was the true and supreme example of Christian love, concern for others, and devoted disciple of Jesus Christ.

She is survived by her husband Alvin of Lincoln; sons Mark and his wife Denise of Lone Tree, Colorado; Merrell of Lincoln; grandchildren Christie Schoenrock; Nikki Smith; Tyler Schoenrock and special friend Hannah Kelly of Lincoln; Olivia Spence and her husband John of Gretna; Sarah LeMonte and her husband Joshua of Newark, Delaware; and great-grandchildren Avery Smith and Jaden Smith of Provo, Utah.

Funeral services will be held on Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 2:00 pm at the United Methodist Church in Fairbury with Pastor Warren Schoming officiating. Burial will be in the Fairbury Cemetery. The family will greet friends on Wednesday from 6-8 pm at the funeral home.