Magdalene V. Rhoades

Magdalene V. (Schwartz) Rhoades peacefully passed to her heavenly home on February 19, 2018. Born in Kenton, Ohio on January 18, 1918 to Edward and Catherine Rose (Dick) Schwartz, she had just celebrated her 100th birthday surrounded by her family and friends.

She married her high school sweetheart, Howard, on December 4, 1938 and was a long-time employee of North Electric in Kenton, Ohio. She was a devoted member of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Kenton and St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Bellefontaine, where she was a member of the St. Vincent DePaul Society and a lifetime member of the C.L.C. Society.  She had been a member of St. Andrew Catholic Church in Columbus, Ohio for the past 15 years.

Magdalene was preceded in death by her parents, her loving husband, Howard Rhoades, and daughter and son-in-law, Beverly (Rhoades) and John Corrigan; her siblings, Edward Jr. (6 months), Joseph Schwartz, Eugene Schwartz, Cletus Schwartz, Helene Baker, Margaret Burke, Agnes Schwartz, Louis Schwartz, and Rose Vernier; and a great grandson, Nicholas Baughman.

She is survived by her children, Barbara Jean (Allen) Culver, Sondra Kay Rhoades, Robert Howard (Connie) Rhoades; brother, Charles Schwartz; 10 grandchildren; 13 great grandchildren; one great-great grandchild on the way; and many nieces and nephews.

Magdalene, a devoted wife and loving mother, was a wonderful cook and the matriarch where she shared her famous pulled chicken sandwiches at the Schwartz family reunion every August for the past seventy-five years. An active member of the Bellefontaine community for most of her life, she was known for her incredible smile. When she moved to Columbus to live with her daughter, Sondra, the ladies said they had lost their “Mother Theresa” which surprised and pleased her daughter, because her mother had always done things quietly behind the scenes.

Visitation will be held Friday, February 23, 2018 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Eichholtz Daring & Sanford Funeral Home & Cremation Center in Bellefontaine.

Father Shawn Landenwitch will officiate a Mass of Christian Burial at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, February 23rd at the St Patrick Catholic Church in Bellefontaine.

Burial will follow the church service at the Grove Cemetery in Kenton.

The funeral arrangements are in the care of the staff of the Eichholtz Daring & Sanford Funeral Home and Cremation Center in Bellefontaine.

(Obituary authored by the family)