Maria Schindler Loomis, age 89, passed away peacefully on August 14, 2023 surrounded by family. She was born in Sudetenland on September 25, 1933. During WWII, at the tender age of 11, she and her family became refugees at the hands of the Russian army, evicting them from their home and life and sending them by foot to Austria where they were taken to Rengershausen (a small country village) by train to separate, accepting homes.
As a young woman, she worked as a nurse in a psychiatric hospital and an au pair for an American military family. Due to the war-torn nature of her family, she would oftentimes spend her nights knitting sweaters for her younger siblings. Maria met her husband, Craig, a U.S. army soldier stationed in Germany. They fell in love and married on May 11, 1956. They remained for some time in Germany and then moved to the U.S. where they settled in Reno, Nevada and spent their final years together in Madison, Mississippi. Gardening was their shared passion and she and Craig always had the most beautiful, fragrant, and colorful yard in the neighborhood, but it was the smell of German food cooking, German music playing, and the dances in between that made it home.
Their passionate and strong marriage lasted until his death in April 2012, but she continued to feel his presence.
Maria is preceded in death by her husband of 56 years, Craig W. Loomis. She is survived by her three children: Tina Epper and her husband Duane of Reno, NV; Chris Loomis of Helena, MT; and Susan Dahl and her husband Wayne of Collierville, TN; 6 grandchildren: Katie Middleton, Kellie Luther, Ashlei Magnuson, Cassandra Loomis, Christina Dahl, and Montana Loomis; and 3 great grandchildren: Kaylee and Gwendolynn Middleton and Chase Luther. She is also survived by 2 siblings: Mathilde Ludwig and Hans Schindler, both of Stuttgart, Germany.
