Josie
Irene (Monroe) Schlax (78) died peacefully in her home on April 28, 2020,
surrounded by family.
Josie was born
December 16, 1941 in Holly Grove, Arkansas to parents Pansy (Glassco) and
Garnett Munroe. She shared many stories of her childhood adventures in this
rural area, and especially of her mother and her loving aunts. As a teenager,
Josie moved to Chicago, Illinois where she graduated from Lane Technical High
School and worked as an assistant at Zurich, an insurance agency.
Josie married Peter
Schlax and over more than five decades, they raised four children and spent
their free time focused on family activities. Josie was a devoted and caring
mother and was very close with all of her children.
Their home was the
center of the neighborhood, and Josie included all of her children’s friends as
her "kids.” Josie and Pete hosted multiple large holiday gatherings for
family and friends each year. Everyone was welcome-- the more the merrier.
Josie worked as an
educational aide at Oak Hill School in Streamwood, Illinois in the lunchroom
and main office for twenty-five years, making sure that the elementary school
children had a friendly face. For many years, she also worked as an office
assistant for Dr. Yale DDS.
Josie crocheted,
cross-stitched, and sewed beautiful baby blankets, bedspreads, Christmas
stockings, dresses, costumes and doll clothes. Josie loved birds and the color
red and had a talent with plants of all kinds. She kept beautiful peony
gardens. Josie treasured her four granddaughters with whom she spent time
cooking, picking berries in the garden, dyeing Easter eggs, doing small craft
projects and attending their theater performances.
Two years ago, Josie
was predeceased by her husband.
She is survived by her
children Jeannine (Lee)Pisarczyk , Peter (Paula) Schlax, Jr., Michael (Liz)
Schlax, and Denise Schlax, her grandchildren, Sarah (Matt Hickman), Norah,
Elena, and Jillian, her brother David (Cecilia) Monroe, sister Kathy Coburn,
her niece and nephews and their families, and close friends Darlene and Roger
Diveley, and Ruth Svobda.
Arrangements
were by Stetson’s Funeral Home 12 Federal St. Brunswick, ME where memorial
condolences may be expressed at stetsonsfuneralhome.com