Elizabeth Ruth BrandonJune 29 1924 - October 1 2017Salem - Elizabeth Ruth (Beth) Schumacher was born on June 29, 1924 in Seattle, Washington. She died on October 1, 2017 in Salem, Oregon, one year minus a day after the death of her husband, Richard (Dick). She is survived by her children Christine, Paul, Susan, Mary, and Marthe, as well as five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.Elizabeth resided in Seattle and Bothell, Washington until 1943, when she moved to Portland, Oregon to work in the shipyards in World War II. By that time, she had known Dick for several years. They were married in 1944 in San Antonio, Texas, where Dick was stationed in the US Army Air Force. Following the war, they resided in Oregon (Portland, Corvallis, and Salem). In 1962, the family moved to Papua New Guinea, with Dick serving as an administrator and business manager for the New Guinea Lutheran Mission, the older children attending school in Adelaide, South Australia, and the younger children attending a mission boarding school a few miles up the road. In addition to being a homemaker (initially without electricity or running water), Beth sometimes served as a boarding school houseparent and helped with premature New Guinean babies. Upon returning from Papua New Guinea in 1967, Beth and Dick and their two youngest children moved to Springfield, Illinois, where Dick enrolled at Concordia Theological Seminary, graduating in 1971. While Dick served as a pastor in Baltimore, Maryland in 1971-1977; again in Papua New Guinea in 1977-1980; in Seabeck, Washington in 1980-1986; and in Ghana, west Africa, in 1986-1993, Beth was an eager and willing teacher and leader in her own right. After their retirement in 1993, Dick provided volunteer service in South Africa in 1997 and again in 2000, with Beth working with the women and children of the communities (including AIDS patients), leading Bible study and teaching religion, teaching sewing and similar activities, and even teaching math when it was needed. In addition to being a devoted mother and homemaker, Beth loved to sing in church choirs and was an accomplished craftsperson (sewing clothing for the family, making quilts, doing embroidery and cross-stitch, knitting, and crocheting). She designed and made banners which adorn several churches, and her work is displayed to this day in the homes of her children. She continued these activities even as her health began to decline.In lieu of flowers, please send memorial donations to St. John Lutheran Church, 1350 Court St NE, Salem, Oregon 97301, earmarked for the Education Ministry of Themba Trust (in Dirkiesdorp, South Africa), where Dick and Beth served in 1997.A memorial service will be held at Peace Lutheran Church, 1525 Glen Creek Rd, Salem, Oregon, at 1:00 PM on Saturday, October 28, with a reception to follow at the church.