Rosemary A. (Effing) Rudolf

Rosemary was born on June 11, 1943, the daughter of John and Loretta (Schrank) Effing. She grew up on the Effing Homestead in Hamburg, Indiana with her 4 brothers and 4 sisters.

The quiet, third-born child believed in hard work and self-sufficiency from an early age. She was proficient with the twice daily milkings and taking care of her younger siblings. Determined and brave beyond her nine years of age, she once stopped a charging bull dead in its tracks armed with only a stick and “a good crack across his nose.” When her family would travel for a few days, it was Rosemary they trusted to handle the homestead and milking while they were away. Her sisters say she braided their hair so tightly that they couldn’t blink their eyes.

On the farm, she learned from her mother how to make a beautiful rock garden, how to preserve the bounty of the garden to feed a hungry family through the winter, how to quilt scraps of fabric into works of art, and how the dough is supposed to feel for a good loaf of homemade bread. She inherited her mother’s green thumb and artistic eye.

At about age 17, she started working at Batesville Casket Company. She sewed the linings for the caskets and fell in love with a shy, handsome guy in the hinge-plating department named George. When they were walking in the woods one day, George simply said, “You would make a good wife.” At 20 years of age, they married on July 6, 1963 at St. Anne Catholic Church in Hamburg. They started married life in a one-bedroom apartment above the post office in Oldenburg.

About a year later, they built their first brick ranch house, doing most of the construction themselves. George had been trained as an electrician when Hillenbrand used employees to build a new factory. George’s father was a carpenter by trade and Rosemary’s father had a sawmill and blacksmith shop on the farm, so they both knew how to tackle many things. They learned early on that they made a good team working side by side. She was the visionary who could always “make it better” and both knew if they “put their mind to it” they could do anything. They were never afraid of hard work.

They started a family a few months after moving into the house when Steven George was born in October 1964. Their first daughter Amy Kristina followed in April 1966. Life was simple and going well for the young couple until George dented the company truck and was fired. Dan Hillenbrand quickly rehired George, but in the meantime he had been offered a new job for better wages with General Electric in Shelbyville.

Farther away from family and friends, George and Rosemary learned to rely more extensively on each other. Together they built another brick home and raised vegetables, flowers, and kids. Patricia Lea was born in November 1968. In addition to her own three children, Rosemary babysat for the neighborhood kids to supplement the family income.

About three years later, George was recruited by the GE Wire Mill in Fort Wayne. He attended night school for his Electrical Engineering degree and eventually became the Logistics and Materials Manager. Once the kids were all in school, Rosemary worked for a while at the Fort Wayne Drug Company. Having a passion for architecture, she decided to go back to school for her Real Estate license.

Rosemary excelled at Real Estate! She enjoyed helping people find a home they would love longterm. She developed close friendships with her clients, often working with multiple generations. She was a multi-million dollar, award-winning broker in the top 5% of agents year after year. She was so good at real estate, that one year alone she sold three homes her family was living in!

As a realtor she could always see the potential of a space beyond the bad paint and wallpaper, beyond the wall that could “easily be taken out” to improve the flow because “we can always make it better with a little effort.” Rosemary and George custom designed and built at least five homes. She loved starting with a blank sheet of graph paper and designing from scratch.

Rosemary and her mentor, Carlene Samczyk, took 30 acres of abandoned orchard and turned it into a very successful 27-lot neighborhood called “Old Orchard” complete with 2 ponds and tennis courts. With the encouragement of Carlene and other industry experts she trusted, Rosemary’s bravery and entrepreneurial spirit shined through and she achieved great things as a first-time land developer and president of her own LLC. She often said that project changed the trajectory of her career and life.

Rosemary loved her career in real estate. There she felt valued and respected for her talent and always treated like “a lady whose opinion mattered.” She was interviewed for local TV shows, participated in the city’s development advisory panel, and was on the building committee for the new Catholic Church.

Her vision and renovation skills were leveraged by her children and grandchildren as well. None of them have lived in a house where renovation of a kitchen, bath, or porch was not scratched out on the back of an envelope by Rosemary. George and Rosemary’s own home always had a list of projects to move a wall here, add a door there, extend the porch here, put in a new flower bed there…because “no matter how good it is, we can always make it better.”

When George retired early from GE, they relocated back to Oldenburg and had what both would describe as “the best 10 years of their life.” They built a wonderful retreat on part of her Uncle Ben Effing’s old farm and the kids and five granddaughters - Madison, Briana, Sydney, Natasha, and Elena - loved to spend weekends fishing, four wheeling and feasting on s'mores around the huge fire pit. This was only sweetened when her sister Jane built just up the hill. Rosemary raised chickens, tended to her huge gardens, and started a longarm quilting business as “The Village Quilter.”

She founded a philanthropic endeavor called “Wee Quilts,” and expanded it with the Batesville Quilting group who would donate up to 200 quilts a year. “Wee Quilts” was later extended to “Comfort Quilts” which is still donating quilts today. Rosemary also made many “Quilts of Valor” for veterans and “Fidget Quilts” for Alzheimer patients.

It was always amazing to watch her creative process as she picked the perfect mix of fabrics for a quilt, with an eye for color like no one else, or rearranged the blocks on her design wall for the optimal layout. “If we just swap this and this around…we can make it better.”

She was also very mathematically minded, whether calculating mortgages, inches of binding, or investment returns. She worked to instill in all her grandchildren the importance of compounding and investing from their very first paychecks forward.

Rosemary and George moved back to Fort Wayne in 2011 to be closer to Amy and her two girls. Since then they have been blessed with two great-granddaughters - Isla and Abby - and one great-grandson - Mika (with a second great grandson due in December). While in Fort Wayne, she made many great friends in the Johnny Appleseed Quilting and Trillium Gardening clubs, as well as the local library cooking group.

Rosemary was always generous with family, friends and neighbors. She was known to leave a warm pie or a pan of her famous cinnamon rolls in your mailbox as she drove by, or have one of her kids run something over to the neighbor when it was fresh out of the oven because “they might enjoy a bite too.” Whatever Rosemary did, she did with abundance - more flowers, more fabric, more china, more ribbon and bows. As she often said, “I don’t care what you serve me, just make sure the table has beautiful dishes and a nice tablecloth on it.”

Rosemary’s determination and fight allowed her to overcome many health challenges. She battled kidney disease, multiple abdominal tumors, ten broken vertebrae, seven years of Multiple Myeloma, two years of Metastatic Melanoma, one heart valve replacement and one repair, a pacemaker, and a femoral artery puncture during removal of multiple blood clots that required a massive blood transfusion. Rosemary joked that “Staying Alive” should be played at her funeral because she continued to overcome and this song’s rhythm is used to perform life-saving CPR.

The one thing that never broke or needed fixed was her spirit. Her can-do attitude and optimism to focus on the positive is inspirational to everyone around her. As she would often say “No matter how bad it gets, there is always someone who has it worse off than you.”

When one of the kids would thank her for her gifts or efforts, her response was often “It will cost you.” And in the end, the only price we will ever be asked to repay is paid in our love for her and the tears we shed. We will miss her love, optimism and can-do attitude.

One neighbor put it so well, “Sometimes I just have to call for a dose of Rosemary and then all is right in the world again.” She could motivate you, inspire you and lift you up. And when you need it…give you a kick in the pants to “get on with it”.

She is survived by her loving husband George J. Rudolf, son Steve (Michele Bodi), daughters Amy and Tricia (Terrell Brace, Jr). She also has five Granddaughters (Madison, Briana, Sydney, Natasha, Elena) and four great grandchildren (Isla, Abby, Mika and one great-grandson on the way). She is also survived by her sister Marilyn (Jeff Goodpaster) and brother Bill Effing.

She was preceded in death by her parents John and Loretta (Schrank) Effing, sisters Pauline Murrie, Linda Luken, and Jane Magee, and brothers Harold, Ray, and Ron Effing.

Services will be held at Holy Family in Oldenburg on August 12. There will be visitation from 9-10:15, rosary at 10:15 and a funeral mass at 10:30. A luncheon will follow.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to the Comfort Quilt project run by the Batesville Quilt Makers Group or Project Linus at www.projectlinus.org.