Grace Bernadette Schmitt

Grace Bernadette (Leary) Schmitt, age 88, died at Christopher house, Austin, TX, June 18, 2012. Grace was born on November 21, 1923, at the family home on Barrow Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York. She was the youngest of five children of Patrick Joseph and Mary Josephine (Hayes) Leary. She attended both Catholic and public elementary and high schools, graduating eighth grade from PS 181 in 1937 and Erasmus Hall in 1941. In the latter year, she also passed all of the New York State Regents Exams. In September 1941 Grace enrolled in St. Joseph’s College for Women in Brooklyn, graduating in 1945 with a BA in History. In September she entered the Library School of Pratt Institute and in June 1946 received her B.L.S. degree. Upon graduation she received a position as librarian in Brooklyn College and remained there until September 1949.

On December 27, 1947, Grace met Karl Schmitt at the wedding of her college classmate, Veronica Burke, with Harold McDonnell, a college room-mate of Karl. She and Karl were immediately attracted to each other, a whirlwind courtship followed, and they married at St Robert Bellarmine Church in Bayside, Queens, New York on June 18, 1948. Grace put her career on hold for over 20 years while she followed her husband on his career and raised five children. Three children were born in Niagara Falls, New York, one was born in Arlington, Virginia, and the youngest in Austin, Texas, two months after the family arrived here in 1958.

Grace was a woman of many talents and enormous energy. From her college years, she felt a strong desire to express herself artistically. She tried her hand at painting, writing, arts and crafts, knitting, sewing, gardening, furniture refinishing, and house remodeling and interior decorating. But she had a hands-on approach too. She hung wallpaper, painted house interiors, installed wood paneling, and taped and floated wall-board. Grace came into her own, however, when she returned to her library career in January 1973.

As the children reached college age, it became a clear to Grace that her husband’s university salary would be insufficient to see all five through higher education. She told Karl that she was through with volunteer work and wanted to earn some money. The Austin Public Library hired her immediately upon her application, and assigned her to cataloging and reference. Nosying around the old library building on 9th Street, she discovered a darkened, dusty basement filled with children’s books. She requested and was granted permission to clean up and organize the area and to start a new children’s program. She began ordering books to bring the collection up-to-date and introduced story telling for groups of children of school and pre-school age. In the meantime Grace had been introduced to puppetry with the Bijuberti Players, founded in the mid-1960s by Linnalice Carey and Pat Fiske. With instructions from the group Grace had learned to make puppets and perform plays. With the reopening of the children’s room in the library, Grace was determined to introduce puppetry to the children. Her program proved a huge success. In time Grace produced her own plays: ie she made the puppets, wrote the scripts, and put on the shows. After a time she began to take the shows on the road to all the branch libraries in the system. Grace also trained a number of young people, notably Ellen Scott and Robbie Lueth, to carry on after her. Grace retired from the library in March 1986, but for some years children seeing her would shout out “Puppet Lady, Puppet Lady”.

Beyond the library Grace continued her interest in children’s literature and puppetry. She was one of the founders of the Central Texas Puppetry Guild, the transformation and enlargement of the Bijuberti Players when the group joined the national association, Puppeteers of America. Grace remained active for many years in the P.of A., attending several national conventions. Grace also lectured on children’s literature for about seven years at Southwestern University at Georgetown, Texas. She also made a special puppet “Supertele”, for the Police Department of the City of Ausitn to instruct children how to call “911”. She collaborated with Nancy Renfro in constructing a similar program for the Fire Department: Nancy made the puppet and Grace wrote the script. She received awards and recognition for both these programs.

Grace was also a political activist. How could she not be coming from an Irish, Catholic, New York, Democratic family? Her father was a staunch union man, and one brother, a Norman Thomas Socialist. In college during World War II she agitated for the coal miners of Kentucky and West Virginia, when their leader John. L. Lewis instigated strikes and confronted President Franklin Roosevelt. It was a potentially dangerous position to take, considered unpatriotic by ardent nationalists. Throughout her life she held strong liberal-to-radical views, dismayed by the poverty, poor health, low wages, and lack of good education of so many Americans, in this the richest of countries. She did what she could: contributed to “good” causes, never missed a vote, participated in several election campaigns, and involved herself in the efforts to racially integrate the Austin school system in the late 1960’s-early 1970’s. Grace had joined the Leave of Women Voters in 1962, and served as president of the local chapter 1969-1971. As a member of the League she became deeply involved in the failed effort to write a new constitution for the state.

Grace also believed strongly in volunteer social work. For over 20 years she served meals in a soup kitchen: first at Baptist Chapel in East Austin and then at Caritas Soup Kitchen at 7th and Neches Street. She retired in early 2012 when her health failed. She also drove for Medi Wheels for 12 years, retiring from that activity when she could no longer drive. When she and her husband spent an academic year in Manchester, England in 1988-89, Grace distributed books and other reading materials to patients in several hospitals. In one ward, the young men would always greet her with: “Here comes the Yank”. Grace loved it.

Grace loved traveling. She and her husband were inveterate sightseers, especially of historical sites. But before they began their world travels they took their brood around the U.S. to see the country. Clearly unable to afford restaurants and hotels for seven people, they reluctantly concluded they had to camp. Karl knew how to take care of himself in the field from his army experience, the children were enthusiastic, but Grace was the great unknown: big city girl used to all the amenities of urban life. No need to worry. She took to camping readily. Grace loved the outdoors, enjoyed hiking, gloried in the natural beauty of the land and adapted to life in the rough – or semi rough.

One morning she was making the family pancakes in a drizzly rain in some national park, protected only with a kitchen fly. She was unfazed: laughing, flipping the cakes in the pan, and directing all to their places. The family camped for about 10 years, from the mid 60’s to the mid 70’s. As the children grew older some opted out. But for all, camping was a great life experience. Without Grace the family could not have done it.

With camping over and the children leaving home for college and career. Grace and Karl turned their interest to international travel. Beginning in 1983 and ending in 2007 they went abroad every summer except for 2004 when Grace first became ill. In the early years they sought their family roots in Ireland, Germany, and Italy with mixed success. They found the town from which the Hayes migrated but could not locate the village of the Learys; it had disappeared. Grace and Karl traveled mostly in Europe, but also visited exotic lands such as India and Nepal, China and Tibet, and Indonesia and Singapore. With her interest in history, Grace tramped over ancient battlefields, climbed old battlements and walls, and visited religious sites from Stonehenge, to Hagia Sophia, to St Peter’s in Rome, to Khajuraho. For their final trip they made a cruise of the Caribbean. Grace loved the sea, but it was obvious by the following year that her serious traveling had ended. Her illness had advanced too far.

Grace remained a devout and practicing Catholic all her life. She welcomed the reforms of Vatican Council II of the early 1960’s and became troubled by the efforts to undo the reforms that began to appear clearly in the 1980’s. With an open, questioning, and critical mind she began to disagree strongly with the rising authoritarianism and increasing conservatism of Catholic leaders. She could not accept the church’s official condemnation of homosexuality, contraception, married clergy and women priests. She even approved of abortion in rare, special cases. Grace joined St Theresa Catholic Church in 1992 and soon became a member of the Ladies’ Club. Grace was also a member for 40 years of the St Paul Chapter of the Holy Family Guild a discussion group on religion, morals, and ethics, and for many years belonged to the St Katherine Drexel Society, a Catholic women’s charitable association.

Grace was predeceased by her parents, all her siblings and one grandchild. She is survived by her husband Karl and their five children: Karl (Lisa); Edward (Nancy); Barbara (Michael); William; and Michael (Clare). She is also survived by former daughter-in-law Sherry Dorsey, seven grand-children, one “adopted” grandson, and numerous nephews, nieces, and cousins.

A Mass of the Resurrection will be celebrated at ten o’clock in the morning on Saturday, the 7th of July 2012, at St. Theresa Catholic Church, 4311 Small Drive, Austin, Texas with Rev. Gregory Romanski as celebrant. Grace’s urn will be placed in Arlington National Cemetery at a later date.

Professional services are entrusted to Cook-Walden Funeral Home, 6100 North Lamar Boulevard, Austin, Texas.

Condolences may be sent to www.cookwaldenfuneralhome.com.