Erna "Annie" Schmidt

Erna “Annie” Schmidt, 82, of Marion, Iowa, passed away on Thursday, September 28, 2023, at her home, surrounded by family after a courageous 15-year battle with breast cancer. In agreement with her wishes, cremation has taken place. A Funeral Mass will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, October 3, 2023, at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Marion, where the family will greet friends for one hour prior to the Mass. Reverend David O’Connor will officiate. Inurnment will take place at a later date at Sacred Heart Cemetery in Sherwood, Wisconsin. Murdoch Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Marion is assisting the family with arrangements.

Erna was born on December 12, 1940, in the German-occupied village of Tesswitz An Der Wiese, Czechoslovakia, to Anton and Margarete (Kunrath) Lehner. She was the youngest of four girls. During WWII, Anton was captured by the Russians and held as a forced laborer prisoner in Siberia. On August 31, 1945, the rest of Erna’s family was part of the Ethnic German Expulsion from the now Russian controlled Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia. They had to leave their land and all their possessions behind. Her family fled to Austria, where they had friends. They eventually settled in the small town of Unterensingen, Germany. Anton was released from Russia in 1955, and rejoined the family there.

Erna graduated from business college in Nurtingen. She went to work there for UniMatronic, who sold office machines in IBM’s new punch card computers. She was then promoted to office manager at the business‘ main office in Stuttgart. On Memorial Day in 1963, Erna met the “love of her life” when she was sitting by a lake and saw a young GI drive by. The GI, LeRoy Schmidt, an Army Engineer stationed near her home, noticed her too. After a short romance, LeRoy returned to the states to be discharged from the Army. He asked Erna to come to the United States and marry him.

On February 8, 1964, LeRoy and Erna were married at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Sherwood, Wisconsin. Together, they had three sons. In 1970, they moved to Marion, Iowa where they have lived ever since. Erna was a homemaker and lovingly raised their sons, was a Line Drafts Person at Iowa Electric, and also was a Nanny to several area families over the years. Erna loved spending time with her family, and playing cards, as well as flower gardening, cooking, designing homes, and traveling. She was a former member of the Cedar Rapids German Club and the Boman Woods Gourmet Club. Erna will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved her.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her one-year-old brother, Anton; sister, Grete Lehner; half-brother, Emerich; mother-in-law and father-in-law, Joseph and Armella Schmidt; brothers-in-law, Rodney Boynton and Tom Murphy; and one niece, Jody Wittmann.

Erna is survived and lovingly remembered by her husband of 59 years, LeRoy; three sons, Patrick Schmidt (Michelle Wilson), Brian (Penny) Schmidt, and LeRoy Schmidt (Katy Thomas); sisters, Gusti (Walter) Vogt of Germany and Gerti Boynton of Maine; three grandchildren, Owen, Olivia, and Andrew; and many in-laws and nieces and nephews.

The family would like to express their sincere gratitude to Dr. Chirantan Ghosh and his staff, Mindy, LaNette, Bridget, and Tina, for all the care they gave Erna over the last 15 years; as well as Mercy Hospice. They would also like to extend a special thanks to her sister, Gerti, for all her love, care, and support with Erna.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to the APG Foundation, to help other patients of cancer; or to Birth Right of Cedar Rapids.

Please share a memory of Erna at www.murdochfuneralhome.com under obituaries.