Sommerer Family Website

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aunt cleo

Aunt Cleo is with Jesus now

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Cleopha “Cleo” Freida-Marie Howard, 87, of Jefferson City, Missouri passed away on Sunday, October 2, 2022. She was born on March 15, 1935 in Schubert, Missouri, a daughter of the late Adolph and Theresa (Erhardt) Sommerer.

She was a 1953 graduate of Cole V R-I High School in Eugene. Cleo went on to attend Lincoln University. She worked for Capital City Telephone as an operator for over 30 years, earning her gold pin upon retirement. Cleo enjoyed growing flowers and tomatoes in her garden. She loved to sing and was a member of the Faith Lutheran church choir and the Sweet Adeline’s for many years. Most of all she loved her family and making memories with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She will be greatly missed.

Cleo is survived by her daughter, Julie Baker; siblings, Vernon Sommerer, Theresa Loyola Sommerer and Lloyd Sommerer (Jane); grandchildren, Scott Baker (Som), Shawn Baker (Jeromy Layman) and Sarah Jones (Ryan); great-grandchildren, Matthew, Adam and Jonathan Jones, Soloman, Samson and Silas Baker. She was preceded in death by her son-in-law, Greer Baker; siblings, Elizabeth Williams, Lillian Kuegule, Erhardt “Bud” Sommerer, Felix Sommerer, Marjorie Beck, Anna Beatrice Putnam, Mahlon Sommerer and Naomi Vetter; brothers-in-law, Justin Williams, Ted Kuegule, Edgar Beck, Fred Putnam and Louis Vetter; sisters-in-law, Alma Sommerer and Carol Sommerer.

Friends will be received on Friday, October 7, 2022 from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. at Houser-Millard Funeral Directors. Funeral service will be on Saturday, October 8, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. at Faith Lutheran Church with a one-hour visitation beginning at 9:00 a.m. prior to service.

Expressions of sympathy may be made to Calvary Lutheran High School.

Confirmation and Marriage Certificates

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My mom sent these to me and told me to put them on the website. Since you have to do what your mom tells you to do, here they are:

I think Aunt Cleo decoupaged these several decades ago. Were they hanging on the wall in the dining room in grandma’s house? Here’s the PDF document that my mom sent to me if you need a night quality print. Bonus points is anyone wants to translate them for us.

Uncle Mahlon’s Story (part 3)

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I can remember a time during confirmation school around the sixth or seventh grade we would have to walk all the way to school and do our chores before school. If I were running late due to being behind on my chores, I would run to school seven miles, five of which were through the woods. The school was a small one-room school located in Oak Grove, Missouri. I would cut back all of the weeds in order to create a path to walk on with Cleopha, Lolly, and Naomi. I remembers cutting holes in the barbwire and wrapping them with gunnysacks so the barbwire did not tear their clothing. The children were expected to attend no matter what the weather was like and even during the winter the girls still wore dresses. Cleopha, Beatrice, and Lolly later walked this path to school and across the creek in 2011. I also remembers a time when the creek was frozen. I saw a minnow in the creek, so I ran jumping onto the frozen creek with one foot on the creek and the other on the creek bank. The foot on the frozen creek fell through causing me to hit the ice with my bottom. Once I arrived home, my pant leg was frozen dry to my leg.

Aunt Lolly’s Story (part 11)

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When I was small, I spent many hours sitting on Daddy’s lap combing his hair. He had lots of patience and endured a lot. He taught us to play blind pitch, and then regular pitch. He played the harmonica and I played my drum sitting by the old wood stove in the wintertime.

On cold winter weekend nights, we would run upstairs where the peanuts and popcorn were laid out to dry on papers on the floor, dip up a big pan of peanuts and grab ears of popcorn and take them to the kitchen. We put the peanuts in the oven to bake and shelled the popcorn. We would pop a big dishpan of popcorn. Then Mahlon, Cleo, Naomi and I would play cards or Monopoly till midnight.

Aunt Lolly’s Story (part 9)

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We walked two miles to school at Oak Grove. When I was in fourth grade, the bus started picking us up. We had to walk 1/2 mile up the road to the mail box. When we walked to Oak Grove, we had two creeks to cross, and Goetz’s and Otto’s cows to worry about. We were so scared of them. We would walk miles out of our way if the cows were anywhere near our path. For some reason, they always chased us if they saw us. Our lives were never dull! If it rained and the creeks were up, we had to walk upstream about a mile before we could cross. We ate rabbit grass in the spring on the way home from school, and possum grapes, black hulls, persimmons and huckberries in the fall. Cleo and I were janitors at Oak Grove. We got_paid 10-15 dollars a month. We had to sweep the floors, clean blackboards and carry in fresh water each day. We would run all the way home then so we could listen to our soap opera “Just Plain Bill”. It came on the radio at 4:15 PM.