Rita Schumacher, 100, passed away peacefully at Brookstone Acres in Columbus, Neb., April 20, 2023. Mass of Christian Burial is at 10:30 a.m. Friday, April 28, at St. Isadore Catholic Church. Visitation is Thursday from 4-6 p.m. with a Vigil Service beginning at 6 p.m. Visitation continues Friday morning in the Church from 9:30 a.m. until Mass at 10:30. Interment is at All Saints Cemetery in Columbus. Her children will serve as her pallbearers.
Rita Belle Jarosz was born on Jan. 8, 1923 to Helen (Barnas) and George Jarosz on their family farm near Cornlea, Neb. Warren Harding was President, Prohibition had begun and the Roaring ’20s were underway. The oldest of her family, she was soon joined by three younger siblings, Alfred, LaVerna and Arnold. She received her education from the Franciscan Sisters at St. Michael’s Catholic School in Tarnov, a small rural town founded by her ancestors and a group of Polish Immigrants from Tarnow, Poland. While a student at St. Michael’s, she often stayed in town with her grandmother Agnes (Obdiezychleb Gourka) Jarosz, hearing stories in the Polish vernacular of her boat ride from Poland in 1888. Her grandmother never learned to speak English but would pray the rosary unceasingly, a habit that Rita would embrace her entire life. Her family of origin as well as her Polish Heritage instilled in Rita a deep and abiding faith.
When Rita was 4 years old, her Uncle Andrew Jarosz built the historic Lady of Lourdes Grotto on St. Michael’s Campus upon his return from the World War I, in honor of the Blessed Mother and the men from the town who fought in the war. When she was eighteen Pearl Harbor was attacked, igniting World War II and when she was 22, she joined the country in celebrating victory and peace. On Nov. 16, 1949, she married Maynard Schumacher, a returning Navy sailor who served aboard ship and grew up on a neighboring farm. They moved to a farm two miles from her homeplace and together they worked side by side, planting and harvesting crops and raising livestock. She soon became a mother of six children – Paul, Alice, Gene, Julie, Annette and Mathew – and her life’s vocation began.
