Birth: January 10, 1922
Death: August 14, 2002
Location: Lot 170, Section 6, New Addition
Grand Island Independent Saturday 17 Aug 2002, p. 9-A
Wood River – Wilhewlmina, “Mena” Schultz, 80, of Wood River died Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2002, at Mary Lanning Hospital in Hastings.
Services will be at 10:30 a.m. Monday at first United Methodist Church in Wood River. The Rev. Rose Bartleson will officiate. burial will be at a later date.
visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Apfel-O’Brien-Straatmaan Funeral Home in Wood River.
Memorials are suggested to the family or the American Heart Association.
Mrs. Schultz was born Jan. 10, 1922, at Lisle, N.Y. to Peter and Catherina (Eri) Romyn. She was the first child born in the United States as her parents had moved to the United States from Holland. At a young age, she moved with her family to Nebraska, where her father took a job on a farm. When she was 9 or 10 years old, her family moved to Salt Lake City, where she received most of her education. While in Utah, she and her sisters sang in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. In 1937, her family moved again to Los Angeles, where she graduated from Fremont High School.
She married Robert Cain in 1940. She worked as a drill press operator during World War II in an aircraft facility. After the war, the couple divorced and she worked as a wiring electrician making refrigerator units for trucks and trains.
She married Al Schultz on Aug. 27, 1960, in Las Vegas at the Chapel of the West. The couple lived in Whittier, Calif., where in 1962 she started working for Carrier-Transcold in Montebello as a wire technician. In May 1981, they sold their home and moved to Wood River. she worked at Bullet Weights for a couple of years in Grand Island. In 1994, she began work as an interpreter at the Stuhr Museum in Grand Island, talking to visitors about 1890 homes. She worked there until 2001, when her health forced her to quit.
She was a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary to Post 4677 and the National Rifle Association. She enjoyed camping, fishing, bowling, ceramics and playing cards. She despised yard work and was known for having artificial flowers.
Survivors include her husband; a son, Paul R. Cain of Weatland, Mo.; a daughter, Patricia L. Plouffe of Albuquerque, NM; two step-daughters, Shirley L. Southern of Moreno Valley, Calif., and Janet K. Bennett of Mount Claire, Calif.; four grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; two sisters, Nell Fieger of Long Beach, Calif., and Peggy Ford of Oral Valley, Ariz.; and a brother; Joe Romyn of Long Beach, Calif.
She was preceded in death by three sisters and a brother.