Schobert, Wilda Jean, 1920-2002
Dates
- Existence: 1920 - 2002
Biography
Wilda Jean Ricketts Schobert was born on April 20, 1920 to R.H. "Mike" Ricketts and Ruth Keran Ricketts in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Shortly after her birth, the family moved back to Ricketts Farm in Percival, Iowa, where Jean Ricketts attended third through eighth grades at Ricketts School on the family farm. Ricketts went to Sydney High School for one week in 1934 before moving to Webster City to attend St. Bernard's Academy, a Catholic school, from which she graduated in 1937. Ricketts attended college at Iowa State University for a year, and then moved back to Fremont County to be closer to home; she continued taking classes at a nearby community college.
While visiting a friend in Toledo, Ohio, Ricketts met Frank Schobert; they married and lived in Ohio for several years. The couple had one son, Dick; they later divorced. Throughout her career Jean Schobert worked mostly in accounting, but during World War II she was a telephone operator. Besides Iowa, she lived in Missouri, California, and Nebraska, where she enjoyed buying and fixing up old houses. After her mother's death in 1976, Schobert moved back to Ricketts Farm to live with her son, who is the fifth generation of the family to farm there. In 2002, Wilda Jean Ricketts Schobert passed away.