Anna Irma Schuerger

Anna Irma Dragony Schuerger will be greatly missed by her surviving family and friends.  She passed away peacefully in Dallas on December 24, 2009, just in time to join her loved one’s in Heaven for Christmas.Anna was born on October 9, 1919 in Cleveland, Ohio to Joseph Dragony and Anna Farkas.  Known as “Bunny” to her family, she grew up within a strong, lively Hungarian community.  Picnics and family gatherings along with trips to Lake Erie kept the rich traditions alive, and family was and always would be the most important element of life for Anna.  Her mother was a legendary pastry chef, and her father was a well known mechanic, founding a generation of car lovers.  Anna graduated fourth in her class from high school, and though she was unable to attend college, she was a truly intelligent woman and an avid and lifelong learner, reading, writing and vital in her knowledge and opinion on events around her.  She met her loving husband, Otto Stephen Schuerger, a fellow Hungarian-American, in Cleveland and they married on September 27, 1941.  Anna then became one of the amazing women of “The Greatest Generation”, keeping the home fires burning while her husband Otto and beloved brother Joe went to war to defend freedom.  Gratefully, both returned home at war’s end, and the “O’Schuerger” clan began to grow.Just as Anna’s parents and Otto’s parents made a difficult journey from Hungary to America for a better life, Anna and Otto made a journey across the United States seeking the best life they could make for their young family.  They ultimately came to Amarillo, Texas, where Otto worked for the US Helium Activity and then the US Postal Service, and the family became members of St Laurence Parish.   Anna began to work for the Diocese of Amarillo.  She helped to found and then edited the West Texas Catholic newspaper and served as personal secretary to three consecutive Bishops until she retired after more than 40 years of service.  Her Catholic faith was strong, abiding and intensely personal, and her service and dedication to her Lord and the Church unflagging.  She cherished the intimate daily masses at the Chancery office in Amarillo and attended Mass regularly at St. Laurence Cathedral until she moved to Dallas in 2005, where she continued to attend Mass weekly at St Thomas Aquinas Church.Anna was a lady, a jokester, a woman of integrity and constancy.  In her words she may have been our “old bag of bones” but she was “always good for two things – eating and sleeping!”  She was a huge proponent of fresh fruits and vegetables and was especially fond of chocolate cake and strawberry ice cream.  She reminded us that “home is where when you knock they have to let you in”, and she lived by that creed her entire life.  She advised that “you don’t have to tell everyone everything you know” which fit her practice of being concerned with the welfare and interests of others before her own.  She was proud of her Hungarian heritage and her status as a direct descendent of Attila the Hun.Anna is survived by her children, Norma Jeanne and Clark Sears of Meridian, Idaho, Julie and Tom Edgett of Roswell, New Mexico, Fred and Lyn Schuerger of Erie, Pennsylvania, Willie and Susan Schuerger of Dallas, Texas, and Clare Hunter of Plano, Texas.  Her grandchildren are  Jennifer and Daniel Reinhart, Alexi and Adam Luna, Patrick Graves, Houston Schuerger, Nicole and Timothy Downs, and Kati, MaryBeth, Joe, Gus and Sam Schuerger, and her great-grandchildren are Leona Jeanne Hunter, Annalise Reinhart and Xander Luna.  In Heaven, she is reunited with her beloved husband Otto, her brother Joe Dragony and his wife Clay from Tucson, Arizona, and her infant daughters Barbara and Bernadette.  There will be a Vigil Service at 7:30 pm on Monday, December 28, and the Mass of Christian Burial will be at 10:00 am on Tuesday, December 29, both at St Laurence Cathedral, 2300 N Spring in Amarillo.  The principle celebrant will be Bishop Leroy T. Matthiesen.  Anna’s body will be laid to rest next to Otto’s at Llano Cemetery after the Burial Mass.  A memorial service of remembrance will be held in Dallas at St Thomas Aquinas church at a future date in January, 2010.  Arrangements by Schooler Funeral Home, 4100 South Georgia, Amarillo, Tx.

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