AnnieNell Schacht

It is with great sorrow that we say goodbye to our beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, wife, sister and friend, as she leaves us and continues to the next life. She passed away January 17, 2017 from incidents due to old age and a stroke. She was 92 years old.

Annie was born on July 23, 1924 to James Andrew Wright and Laura Sarah Strawn Wright in St. Louis, Missouri, the seventh of eight children. She was the last of them all and liked to call herself “the last of the Mohicans”. During the Great Depression, her family and the family of her oldest sister traveled the country in two 1924 touring cars, pulling a small trailer which carried everything that the 12 of them owned; clothes, bedding, tent, pots and pans, etc. They traveled in Louisiana, Idaho, the Dust Bowl of Illinois and Oklahoma, Utah and finally settled in Phoenix, Arizona. They once stayed in a hanger of an abandoned airport and caught wild chickens for dinner saying it was the best meal they had in a long time. They ate whatever was available and when they found work, were paid in potatoes, beans, pork, apples and sometimes money for flour and sugar. They were able to get a few canned goods. In Phoenix, they lived in Hoover Campground in a tent with dirt floors and no plumbing or electricity.

At age 14, Annie met George Smith at a church Valentine’s Day dance. They courted for three years, and were married on December 13, 1941. While George was in China and India during the war, she worked at Western Union as a clerk. They were married for 32 years and still felt love for one another after their divorce. They met for coffee twice a week until George passed in 2005. She married Kurt Schacht, divorced; Annie worked as a grocery checker for 30 years, retiring from Smith’s in 1993. After retirement, she kept busy crocheting and working on Christmas projects.

She lived the last three months of her life at Sunridge Assisted Living. She enjoyed the neat, clean atmosphere and the friendly staff. She had gotten used to calling it home.

Annie is preceded in death by her parents, siblings, two former husbands, her beloved granddaughter, Shelley and in-laws. She was met by many with open arms. She leaves behind her daughter, Lois (Ernie) Osborne; grandchildren, Paul Crawford and Tami (Pete) Loscher; and great grandchildren, Chelsea and Chandre Loscher; daughter, Katherine (Larry) Taylor; and two step children, Douglas and Roger Taylor; great granddaughter, Kayla Christensen and grandson-in-law Steve Christensen in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday, January 21, 2017 at 11:00 am at the Valley View Funeral Home, 4335 West 4100 South, where friends may visit with the family on Friday evening from 6-8 pm and again on Saturday one hour prior to the service. Interment: Valley View Memorial Park. Condolences may be sent to the family at valleyviewfuneral.com.