Notes for Hazel Anna Brown

Notes for Hazel Anna Brown

Obituary of Mrs. Hazel A. Schelle in the South Bend Tribune February 9, 1970

Mrs. Hazel A. Schelle, 74, of 1412 Kinyon St., died at 5:45 a.m. sunday in Good Samaritan Hospital, Dayton, Ohio, after a long illness. She was born August 26, 1895, in South Bend and was lifetime resident of the South Bend-Mishawaka area. As Hazel A. Brown, she was married to Kurt O. Shelle on Aug. 20, 1917 in South Bend. He died Nov. 6, 1961. She is survived by two sons, Kurt O. Shelle Jr., Brookfield, Wisconsin and Donald R. Shelle of Mishawaka, and a daughter, Mrs. Russell Hartz of Dayton, with whom she was visiting at the time of her death. She also is survived by 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Friends may call in the Bubb Funeral Chapel, Mishawaka, after 7 p.m. today and until 11:30 a.m. Wednesday. Friends may also call from 1 to 2 p.m. Wednesday in the Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer, where services will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday with Rev. Edmund Peters, pastor, officiating. Burial will be in the Mount. Pleasant Cemetery. Mrs. Schelle was a member of the Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer.

From the family notes of Kurt Otto Schelle, Jr:

Hazel was the youngest surviving daugher of Lewis Caswell Brown and his wife, Elizabeth Mendenhall. They had 10 children but only 5 survived infancy. Mother was born on August 26, 1895 in South Bend, Indiana. She graduated from South Bend High School and worked as a bookkeeper in Lakeville and Michigan City, Indiana. After returning home when her older sister moved to Dever, she met Dad. In spite of a well defined lack of entusiasm on the part of her family, she married Dad. When Hazel married Kurt, she lost her citizenship because he was German. Kurt was naturalized around 1940, and she was able to be repatriated. Life as the wife of a man in the theature business was not easy. His work took 12 to 16 hours per day, 7 days a week. When he was at home he was exhausted and spent most of his time sleeping. Her social life was very little. About 1927-28 a little Lutheran mission was started in our neighborhood. In the hope the German church would be attractive to Dad she let my brother and me transfer from the River Park Methodist Sunday School to Redeemer Lutheran Sunday School. Her strategy worked. Shoon she had joined the Lutheran church and not long afterward he joined too, although he did not become a regular church goer until his retirement. During the depression, when the economy was its sickest she gladly helped out in the theatre by keeping its books and workin int he box office and refreshment stand. After we closed the theatre in 1940 she did her best to persuade Dad to quit theater business...alas, it was not to be. However, he never again worked such long hours and they were able to enjoy a solcial life together. She was active in the church, a sunday school teacher, and a leader int he Dorcas Society. She had a mild heart attack in the mid 1950s (scared Dad into quitting smoking). After Dad's death her health seemed to go steadily downhill. She stubbornly refused to give up her home or live with one of her children. She was visiting her daughter (actually recovering from a stay in the hospital) in Dayton, Ohio when on February 7, 1970 she suffered her last and fatal attack. She was in her 75th year and the last member of her nuclear family.