OHDE Funeral Home

OHDE Funeral Home Obituaries

Last Salute - Carroll Daily Times Herald

First United Methodist Church in Coon Rapids for the funeral, while others, including Congressman Steve King, R-Kiron, a friend of Schumacher’s, paid respects at the visitation Thursday at Ohde Funeral Home.“Growing up in Coon Rapids, you couldn’t help but know who John J. Schumacher was,” said Carroll County Sheriff Ken Pingrey, the father of Will and Levi. “Everyone in town knew him and he, in turn, knew everyone in town. He is one of those rare people who always had a smile and was quick with a handshake, even when he may have been facing adversity himself. He later became a mentor to both my boys as they decided to enter the military. He lived an exemplary life that we all could learn from.”John Kult, a family friend from Coon Rapids, said Schumacher was a “master storyteller” — an attribute that allowed him to keep World War II memories fresh and on the ready for schoolchildren and other audiences.In the early morning of March 23, 1945, Schumacher (pronounced “shoemaker”) joined thousands of Allied troops in Operation Varsity, an airborne assault on Germany along the Rhine River in Wesel. With a stomach full of a steak that tasted an awful lot like a “last meal,” Schumacher rode in the driver’s side of a Jeep carried by a CG-4A glider, towed behind a C-47 plane, from France to hostile German territory. No seat belts. No parachutes.“For 40 years, we tried to forget it,” Schumacher said in a 2013 interview with this newspaper. “Once you get to this point, you realize how lucky you were to survive something like that.”Schumacher, a private with the 194th Glider Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division, said he doubts the existence of a rougher riding craft than the glider — “which was no more than a welded tubular frame stretched with canvas, a plywood floor and a nose section with room for two pilots.”Within the first 12 hours of Operation Varsity, casualties were high for the 17th — 1,080 killed, and up to another 4,000 wounded or missing or captured.Schumacher landed safely and proceeded with the mission: Securing key territory in western Germany.Only weeks earlier, Schu...

Late Notices, Jan. 10, 2017 - News-Press Now

Sunday, January 8, 2017, at his home.Funeral service: 10:30 a.m. Thursday, January 12, 2017, at the First Baptist Church of Wathena.Visitation: 6-8 p.m. Wednesday evening, at the Harman-Rohde Funeral Home, in Wathena, where friends may call after 1 p.m. Wednesday.As published in the St. Joseph News-Press.