Stella V Schrag

Obituary for Stella Schrag

Stella V. Schrag was born on Jan. 6, 1923, on her family farm, just down the road from the “South Church,” one of two Mennonite congregations that served as spiritual and social anchors in the southeastern South Dakota community where she was raised.

She was the youngest of three Waltner sisters who attended a nearby one-room schoolhouse and helped their mother, Mary Waltner, run the farm, as their father, Jacob, had restricted activities due to tuberculosis. He died at home when Stella was nine and the four women were able to sustain their farm even through the Depression years.

After attending Freeman Junior College for two years Stella went on to earn a bachelor's degree from Bethel College in Kansas in 1946. While attending Bethel she served on the student council, the International Relations Club, the Student Peace Group, sang in the choir and was elected to Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities.

Throughout those years, Stella had caught the eye of Delbert Schrag, who attended the “North Church” but apparently had broad horizons when it came to the local Mennonite women. In his later years he liked to brag that he married “the best-looking girl in the South Church.”

Their courtship was interrupted by World War II. As an active member of a recognized “peace church,” Del was granted Conscientious Objector status by the local draft board and served in a variety of Civilian Public Service camps from Florida to California.

While Del was serving his country, Stella completed her college education and volunteered her time during the summer months as a Conscientious Objector Girl (COG) at a mental health hospital in Ypsilanti Michigan.

After Del’s discharge in April 1946 and Stella's graduation a month later , the couple married and moved to Kansas, where Del also completed his undergraduate degree at Bethel. Stella and Del then moved to Chicago, where Del enrolled in the University of Chicago Divinity School.

While there Del was assigned, as a student pastor, to a struggling Congregational church in a farming community north of the city. They ended up staying in Ivanhoe for 22 years, building a vibrant, growing community of faith, while raising their growing family of four daughters and a son.

Stella was the classic pastor’s wife of the era, which offered plenty of opportunities (aka uncompensated obligations). She sang in the adult choir, created and led the children’s choir, taught Sunday school classes, hosted church board meetings in her living room, assisted with clerical tasks, women’s groups and fundraising events, and every December herded an assortment of fidgety shepherds and anxious angels into a Christmas eve pageant. Perhaps most importantly, she served as her husband’s ongoing cheerleader and confidant.

In addition, on the home front Stella appeared to effortlessly raise five children while planting and growing her own vegetables, sewing her children’s clothes, participating in school events and committees and organizing annual month-long family vacations with their E-Z and then upgraded Starcraft pop-up campers.

Once her kids were in school, Stella taught half-day kindergarten in nearby Libertyville Illinois to supplement Del’s modest salary, delighting her young charges with various sing-alongs.

In 1972 Del took a church administrative post with the United Church of Christ in Chicago and the couple moved to the western suburb of Lombard. Stella was hired by a church-affiliated retirement home, coordinating volunteers and overseeing an on-site resale store. Shortly after moving to Lombard she was invited to join the Community Renewal Chorus, an interracial choir of one hundred or more members from the Chicago area, and sang with the choir for over 18 years, both in Chicago and on international trips.

The couple stayed busy growing flowers and vegetables in their expansive yard and, in their retirement years traveling. They spent many winters in Tucson, where they owned a townhouse near three of their daughters, exploring the desert and spending time with grandchildren. With their children all settled out West, Stella and Del made one more big life change in 2004, moving to Oregon, where their son and his family lived. The couple joined the Forest Grove United Church of Christ, where Stella’s steady alto voice and ear for harmony was a welcome addition to the choir. They continued to garden and travel, delighting in time spent with their far-flung family.

Del died in November 2018 at the age of 97 of natural causes with Stella at his side. She remained in their Oregon home following his death for five years before her children moved her to Tucson this past March 2025 (at the age of 102) for her last chapter where three of her five children lived. Although seemingly invincible, Stella’s final chapter was cut short due to a fall resulting in a head injury. Five weeks following that fall, on May 17, Stella died peacefully at one of her daughters’ homes, surrounded by three of her children.

Stella was preceded in death by Del and her two sisters, Delpha Graber and Welma Waltner. She’s survived by her five children (and their spouses), Kathryn (Martin), Jan (David), Megan (Erec), Barb (Paul) and John (Karen); her nine grandchildren: Rosie, Aaron, Ariel, Dayna, Sean, Jordan, Elena, Aidan and Nathaniel and two great grandchildren: Mazikeen and Ren.

A memorial service celebrating Stella’s life will be held in the summer of 2025 at Forest Grove United Church of Christ. Please contact family members or the church for details. Contributions in memory of Stella Schrag can be made to:

Forest Grove United Church of Christ, 2032 College Way, Forest Grove, OR 97116

Adelante Mujeres, 2030 Main St, Forest Grove, OR 97116

Mennonite Central Committee, PO Box 500, Akron, PA 17501