Rachel Schnakenberg

Rachel Bernice Schnakenberg was born December 27, 1918 on a farm in Irvington Township to Martin and Maebelle (Dunlevy) Becker. She soon became the eldest of a loving, tight-knit family of five siblings. As a child, she attended country school near Irvington, then Algona High School, and eventually graduated from Burt Community School in 1937 where she was valedictorian. In Burt, she was known for being a great runner, bringing home the top prizes in local foot races year after year. During high school, she was a prolific writer and musician and these two passions continued for decades into adulthood. She was the editor of the Burt school yearbook, which she named "The Round Up"--the name stuck until the school dissolved. She played the violin in the school orchestra and was a talented pianist and organist--a talent that evolved into her playing the organ for the Zion Lutheran Church in LuVerne for an incredible 40 years. Following graduation, Rachel worked at the Algona Advance Newspaper and relished her work as a reporter. She worked there until her marriage to a German immigrant named Thees Schnakenberg on May 24, 1942 in Tucson, Arizona. While Thees was serving in the U.S...[more]

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ilitary, the couple lived in several states where Rachel worked for local newspapers, most notably Las Vegas, where she was a reporter in a diverse community well ahead of its time. When Thees was deployed to serve in World War II, Rachel returned to Iowa to live with his parents, where she waited for two tense years for her loved one to come home. In 1946, Thees did safely return home, and the couple started a family and their Irvington and LuVerne area farming business. Rachel was a talented writer and musician, but her greatest love and strength was a mother and later a grandmother. Rachel was very involved with her children's school activities throughout their formative years and beyond. She ushered them through life's ups and downs with a seemingly endless supply of stoicism. In later years, she embraced her grandchildren and gladly became involved in their activities with same devotion that she gave her first round of children, and spent years nurturing their goals. In their later years, she and Thees liked to travel to World Fairs and to Thees's hometown in Germany. Throughout her life, she remained extremely close to her brothers and sisters, and her many nieces and nephews. For decades, they hosted a get together every single year around the time of Rachel's birthday. These gatherings were famously filled with music and long buffets of home-cooked food. From the time of her marriage until just before her death, Rachel was an active participant in the farm business that she and Thees created and served as the farm accountant for over 60 years. In addition, she was a member of the Kossuth County Historical Society and an active member of the Zion Lutheran Church and its associated LWML, where she served in numerous offices, events, rallies, and conventions. In Rachel's twilight years, she was lovingly cared for in her home by her son and her daughters who traveled from out of state frequently to be by her side. Rachel died peacefully on Monday evening, March 11, 2013, at the Kossuth Regional Health Center in Algona at the age of 94. Survivors include her children, Henry of LuVerne, Iowa; Clara Smith of Atlanta, Georgia and Elaine and husband Daryl Trauger of Overland, Kansas as well as five grandchildren, Tami and husband Tracy Smith, Pamela and husband Jim Kolbet, Scott Trauger and wife Brooke, Mark Schnakenberg and wife Alisha and Adelheid and husband Victor Navarro; seven great grandchildren, Sophia Kolbet, Lela Kolbet, Tyler Smith, Presley Smith, Karl Navarro, Leo Navarro and Jackson Trauger. Also surviving is sister, Evelyn and husband Roscoe Mawdsley of Burt, sister-in-law, Viola Becker of Algona, many nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews. Rachel was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Thees in 1995, an infant daughter Adella, grandson Jon J. Schnakenberg and brothers, George, Frank and Harold.