Wilma Jean Curtright (Kraus) Schrader

Just call her Jean. Everybody did. She was born Wilma Jean Kraus on Dec. 3, 1925, on a farm near Wellington, raised in Kansas City, and was known professionally as Wilma J. Curtright and Wilma J. Schrader in her capacity as a deputy in the District Courts of both Miami County and Sedgwick County. But she preferred to just be “Jean.” As a bright 17-year-old senior at Shawnee Mission High, she was to be 1943 class valedictorian when she fell in love and married on Dec. 10, 1942, Leslie Odean Curtright, a 19-year-old soldier from Missouri who was soon to ship out for WW II. Years later, she breezed through her GED to begin her court career in Paola where she achieved an expertise in juvenile matters. In 1956, she moved with her husband to a farm at Louisburg, where she learned to mow, plow, bale hay and drive trucks beside him. She was a crafter who could crochet, knit and tat up a storm. Most of all, she was a quilter who left behind nearly 50 heirloom quilts. She was also a remarkable seamstress who designed many of her own clothes. She amazed friends with the ability to look at a dress, then go home and whip up her own version without a pattern. She was a gardener who canned her own produce. She planted flowers between rows of vegetables for beauty. After her husband of 41 years died in 1984, she moved to Wichita, transferred to the Sedgwick County District Court and found a second chance for happiness with widower Richard Arlen Schrader, whom she wed on Jan. 28, 1989. Both loved to dance and they kicked up their heels several times a week at senior centers until he became ill and died in 1998. She remained independent and active, even renewing her drivers license at age 80. She became ill last May and slowed down but didnt allow herself to stop until she was hospitalized three weeks ago. She died Monday at 81. Services will be at 11 a.m. Friday in Downing and Lahey East with burial beside her first husband in Louisburg. Preceding her were her parents, Louis Philip Kraus and Bessie Lucille (Richardson); her brother, Melvin Kraus and sister Thelma Fletcher. Missing her are her son, Bob Curtright of Wichita; older sister Margie Drosselmeyer of Anthony; sister-in-law Lettie Vogel of Kansas City, Mo.; three stepsons and wives, Jim and Sharon Schrader of Andover, Bill and Susan Schrader of Haysville, Bob and Janice Schrader of Wichita; eight grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren.