Lake Bluff Obituary: Elizabeth Schatz, 85

The following obituary is from Wenban Funeral Home:

Elizabeth L. “Betty” Schatz (nee Lynch), a 37-year resident of Lake Bluff, IL, passed away peacefully on June 13, 2014. She was 85.

Betty was born on November 22, 1928, in Dawson, IA, four days after Mickey Mouse made his cinematic debut in Steamboat Willie. When she became aware of their shared birth month and year, she adopted Mickey as her unofficial mascot. 

She was a child of the American Depression, enduring the hard-scrabble existence of many children and adults in those years. Her father, George Lynch, passed away shortly before her seventh birthday, when her youngest brother, John, was only three months old. Her mother, Barbara Lynch, found herself raising 10 children alone in Grand Junction, Iowa, at the height of the Depression. It was Barbara’s faith and fortitude that got them through all manner of trials, from the whole family being quarantined with whooping cough to the loss of her eldest son and Betty’s brother, Paul, in 1942, when his ship, the U.S.S. Wasp, was torpedoed off Guadalcanal. The faith Barbara imparted to her children was strong and made stronger by the family’s pride in its Irish heritage.

Betty graduated from Grand Junction High School in 1946, at which time she moved to Omaha, Nebraska, to work for Mutual of Omaha. It was in Omaha that she met her future husband, Vernon. They were married on May 30, 1951, at St. John’s Church at Creighton University, and celebrated 60 years of marriage before Vern passed away in January of 2012. 

Betty was a fine steward of the gifts God gave her. She preferred peace to war. When her nephews were sent to Viet Nam she prayed for them daily. She was a practitioner of recycling long before it was the norm, often enlisting the aid of her children to help her take bottles and aluminum to the recycler as early as the 1960s. She loved nature and wildlife and would sometimes sit with her husband and other family members on her back deck, waiting to see the family of deer that would wander into their backyard and nibble from their garden and trees. She found squirrels hilarious, delighting in their acrobatics and adventures among the black walnut trees planted by her husband. She had an especial love for birds, first and foremost cardinals, although she waited at the end of every winter for her favorite harbinger of spring, the robin.

She was a Cubs fan since moving to the Chicago area in 1969. Like all true Cubs fans, she endured the annual cycle of hope and heartbreak without ever giving up on the idea that someday the Cubs would win it all. 

Betty was the loving mother of four children: Daniel (Debra), Theodore, Lisa Almond (Brian) and Lynne Halverson (Robert); and the grandmother of Crystal, James and Carl (Brianna) Schatz and Scott Almond. She is also survived by her sister Georgia (the late Arthur) Ragole; godchildren Greg (Katie) Lawler and Catherine Cody; and many cousins, nieces, and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband, Vernon; her parents George and Barbara (nee Higgins) Lynch; and siblings Mary, Colletta, Paul, Bernice, Eugene, Theresa, Patricia, and John. 

Visitation from 10:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, June 26, 2014, at Wenban Funeral Home, 320 Vine Avenue, Lake Forest, followed by a funeral mass at 11:30 a.m. at the Church of St. Mary, 175 E. Illinois Road, Lake Forest. 

Memorial contributions in lieu of flowers to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation; the Arthritis Foundation; or the Church of St. Mary.