Miriam T. Schmidt, 95

March 31, 2016

Miriam Isabel Tebbetts Schmidt died quietly at home in Lancaster, PA on March 31, 2016 at 95 years of age. Born on May 8, 1920, her parents were Clarence and Dollie Tebbetts who together managed a large ranch near Otis, New Mexico before that territory’s statehood.

At the approach of the Depression years, Miriam’s family relocated to Louisiana where she spent the remainder of her childhood. As a young adult, she trained as a nurse, graduating from the Baptist Hospital School of Nursing in Alexandria, LA in 1945. After completing training, she joined the Wabash Railroad Hospital Service in Moberly, Missouri where her nursing career was derailed upon meeting and marrying W. Chase Schmidt in 1947.

Miriam and Chase raised their family of three children in Owego, NY, San Antonio, Texas and Elmsford, NY over the next forty years, eventually relocating to Lancaster, PA in 1988 for their retirement. They were wonderful grandparents for seven grandchildren, enjoying grandparents’ days in the Lancaster schools, and hosting numerous Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter holidays. Miriam and Chase celebrated their 67th wedding anniversary shortly before Chase’s death in 2014. Miriam became a great-grandmother to four in the same year, and was able to welcome all four to the family home over the following two years.

During their retirement, Miriam and Chase loved to travel, visiting all 50 states, various European countries, Iceland, and Turkey. They went on cruises to Alaska and the Hawaiian islands. A favorite family activity was simply dining out en masse in restaurants throughout Lancaster. Survivors include sons Winsor Chase Jr. of Davidson NC and Emmett Vance of Ambler PA, one daughter Deborah Jill Haimes of Mount Joy PA, seven grandchildren, Winsor Schmidt III, Benjamin Schmidt, Meredith Edelstein, Daniel Schmidt, Cari Haimes, Andrea Haimes, and David Haimes. Four great-grandchildren, Maxwell, Hannah, Clara and Chase Schmidt IV, also survive her.

Miriam will re-join her parents in Ruston, LA on April 9 where she and Chase will be buried in the Tebbetts family plot. Her life will be celebrated by a graveside service and a family picnic at Caney Lake in Minden, LA, remembered as a place of great joy by her children.

Hers was a wonderful life with a grateful family who will remember nurturing conversations, spectacular family meals, innumerable pets of various species (including, among others, skunks, squirrels, chickens, rabbits and dogs), family camping trips, incredible taxi service for her adolescent children and summer vacations touring the United States. Even in her declining days, she repeatedly voiced that we had a lot of good times and that we were all thankful to have shared our lives. She enjoyed sewing, quilting, gardening, and spent innumerable hours completing the family genealogy. She was a proud member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Descendants of the Signers of Declaration of Independence.