Mabel Scherb, 84, Albert Lea

Published 11:29 am Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Funeral services for Mabel Beiser Scherb, 84, of Albert Lea and formerly of Keister, will be at 11 a.m. Friday at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Albert Lea. The Rev. James Kassera will officiate. Interment will be at Our Savior’s (formerly St. Paul’s) Lutheran Church cemetery in Kiester at 2:30 p.m. Friday. Visitation will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the Bayview/Freeborn Funeral Home and one hour prior to the service at the church on Friday. Online condolences are welcome at www.bayviewfuneral.com.

Mabel Scherb

Mabel died on Monday, March 4, 2013, at the Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea.

Mabel Elizabeth Beiser Scherb was born June 11, 1928, in Kiester Township, Faribault County to John and Rosa Beiser. Mabel attended Kiester country school and graduated from the University of Minnesota’s school of agriculture in 1949. Following school, Mabel returned to Kiester and kept house for her widowed father and brother. Mabel was united in marriage to Martin C.J. Scherb on May 30, 1950, at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Conger — the first couple married in the newly chartered church. They resided in Conger for 1 1/2 years during which time Mabel worked as a telephone operator. The couple moved to Albert Lea for 1 1/2 years and then to a farm east of Kiester in 1953. In 1958, they moved to the farm they purchased south of Kiester where they lived and worked until moving back to Albert Lea in 1996. As a farm wife, Mabel shared in the day-to-day workload with her husband for more than 30 years. After retiring from farming, Mabel and Martin traveled extensively throughout the United States delivering motor homes for Winnebago Industries, visiting family and friends and touring the country.

Mabel was a lifelong, faithful member of several Lutheran churches, including the former St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Kiester, and Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Albert Lea. She was active in the American Lutheran Church Women, adult Sunday school and Bible class, and was a member of the Gideon’s International Auxiliary for more than 30 years. Mabel was an accomplished homemaker and gardener. She grew and preserved most of the family’s food and sewed much of their clothing. A self-taught painter, Mabel enjoyed painting a variety of nature and rural farm scenes, including a series of flowers and saw blades with rural scenes. Mabel developed a great interest in researching and documenting the Scherb and Beiser family histories and spent many hours copying and compiling documents and photographs. Mabel and Martin made two trips to Europe with much of the trips dedicated to seeking out German relatives.

Mabel is survived by her husband, Martin; and was blessed with four children, Rosella (husband Ray) Hanson, Clark, S.D., Barbara (husband Tom Fuller) Scherb, Franklin, N.C., Timothy (wife Mary) Scherb, Sioux Falls, S.D., and Cynthia (husband John) Stumpf, Bella Vista, Ark. She also had four grandchildren, Catherine Parrin, Sioux Falls, Michael Hanson, Mitchell, S.D., and Jacob and Carly Scherb, Sioux Falls; one great-grandchild, Madeline Rose Parrin, Sioux Falls; sisters-in-law, Marjorie Beiser, Marvel Beiser and Phyllis Scherb; and numerous nieces and nephews.

Mabel was preceded in death by her parents, two brothers, Fred and William, two sisters-in-law, Grace Beiser (and infant niece) and Phyllis Beiser and one son-in-law, Larry Mitchell.