Elizabeth Jeanette Gutschke

Elizabeth Jeanette Gutschke, 85, of Shallowater, Texas, died on Saturday, June 27, 2026, after a brief illness in Lubbock, Texas. She had five great loves in life: the Lord, her family, feeding others, traveling and quilting.

Jeanette, one of five children of Mildred and Argus Fitzgerald, was born Dec. 6, 1940, in Wardville, Oklahoma, and attended schools in Sunray, Texas. While in nursing school in Amarillo, Texas, she met Roger Gutschke, a tall, charming airman who carried her heart for the rest of their days. They married on Jan. 30, 1960, in Sunray. She lived in far parts of the United States, Turkey and England during his 20-year career in the U.S. Air Force. That experience sparked future travels across the country and throughout Europe years later.

In 1979 after Roger’s honorable discharge, the couple built a house on a bare patch of land near Shallowater, where they raised their sons Eric, Ivan and Nathan. She graduated from Methodist Hospital School of Nursing in June 1989 and worked as a registered nurse for many years.

Jeannette gathered recipes during her travels to master marquee meals on a budget. The avid cook hosted others for hearty dinners that ended in desserts crafted of sugar, butter and love. Her dishes shined at church potlucks and comforted families coping with illness or death. Breads and pies were her specialty, going to great lengths to foster a decades-old sourdough starter or coax the perfect crust. When the full freezer lost electricity, Jeanette turned the potential loss into an impromptu, memorable feast for church friends seated at tables set up in the front yard. For her granddaughter Emily’s wedding to Ryan Headlee in 2015, she single-handedly scratch-made 27 pies for the reception.

She was equally gifted in sewing and quilting and served in various officer roles with the Lubbock and Ogallala quilt guilds. Colorful quilts – some which were award-winning – fill her home. She also was a long-time member of Kings Ridge Church of Christ.

Jeanette is survived by her devoted husband, Roger; their sons, Eric Gutschke and his wife, Laura, of Abilene, Texas, Ivan Gutschke and his wife, Deanne, of Topeka, Kansas, and Nathan Gutschke, and his wife, Dawn, of Lubbock, Texas; seven grandchildren – Addison, Emily and her husband Ryan, Rebecca, Jonathan, Erin, Braxton and Daniel – and great-grandchildren Rylie and Ronan, as well as her sisters Karla Baker and Karen Fitzgerald, both of Amarillo. Jeanette was preceded in death by her parents, her and Roger’s infant son, Barry, and her siblings, Argus Granville Fitzgerald Jr. and Janice L. Rutherford.