Vernetta E. Schwartz, 88, passed away Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2007, at Provena Covenant Medical Center in Urbana. A prayer service held at Freese Funeral Home, Tolono, and burial at the Ingraham Cemetery, Ingraham.

Mrs. Schwartz was born April 30, 1918, in a log cabin in Jasper County, the daughter of William Clark and Sylva Sadie Kepley Knowles. She was christened in October 1932 at the Ingraham Baptist Church. She married John William Christian Schwartz on Aug. 3, 1941, in St. Louis. He died Jan. 2, 1960.

Mrs. Schwartz received a bachelor's degree from Eastern Illinois University and a master's degree from the University of Illinois. She completed additional studies at Western Illinois University, Northern Illinois University and National College. She taught in one-room country schools for several years and served four years as a teacher-principal in the Clay County area. In 1960, she began teaching in District 54 in Schaumburg and retired to Pesotum in 1979. She was a member of Pesotum Methodist Church in Pesotum, Illinois Retired Teachers Association, the Pesotum Women's Club and United Methodist Women's Association. She traveled extensively in the United States and abroad.

Survivors include sisters, Dema Idell Knowles Gumbel of Pesotum and Mary Louise Knowles Clary of Surfside Beach, S.C. She also leaves nieces, Karen Gumbel Bunting of Scottsdale, Ariz., Connie Clary Lancaster of Surfside Beach, S.C., and Cathy Clary Burdette of Social Circle, Ga.; and nephew, Jerry Clary of Surfside Beach, S.C.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her son, William Larry Schwartz, and nephew, Philip C. Gumbel of Tolono.

News-Gazette, The (Champaign-Urbana, IL) ~ Saturday, January 27, 2007