JAKOBIENE (Kusold) SCHREIBER

JAKOBIENE SCHREIBER age 88. Beloved wife of the late Rudolf. Loving mother of Rudolf Schreiber (Susan Hormuth), Irene Graham (Kevin), Doris Jarem (Tim Skutnik), Richard Schreiber (Sigrun) and Heidi Schreiber (Rock Bolton). Grandmother of Christina Schmitz, Anthony Ferreri (Alexandria), Eric Jecubic, Brittney Bolton (Dustin Thur), Andrew Ferreri, Rock Bolton (Cassandra Ruiz), Clay Bolton and Rudolf Schreiber, Jr. Great grandmother of Raiden Dougherty, Luca Ferreri, Kai Ferreri, Wyatt Thur and Magnolia Thur. Dearest sister of Rosemarie Ksionsek and the late Erwin Kusold, Emilie Lakner, Johan Kusold, Helene Kusold, Karl Kusold, Siegfried Kusold and Adolf Kusold. Aunt, cousin and friend of many.

Jakobiene “Jackie” Schreiber, also known to her siblings as “Biene” was innately kind, loving, wise, and strong. Jackie was born in Reichenau, Yugoslavia, now known as Rahjenav, Slovenia, in 1932. She was the fifth of nine children, two of whom died before the age of 2.

The Kusold family had a farm in Reichenau until the family was forcibly removed from their farm to Austria. Two of siblings, Siegfried and Adolf, were born in Austria. Adolf also died in childhood. The family was sent to the Pfeffernitz refugee camp in 1945 near Villach Austria, where they stayed until 1951. 

Jackie immigrated to the United States with help from Catholic Relief Services, traveling to Salzburg with other Austrian refugees, then to Bremerhaven Germany where she sailed aboard the General Butner, a troop transport ship, and had her 19th birthday at sea.  She earned her passage by doing work on board and slept in a hammock in the lower decks. When she left Europe, she had the clothes she was wearing, a change of clothes and ten dollars. The ship docked in New York on September 5, 1951, and shortly thereafter she traveled to Cleveland, Ohio to join her sister Emilie and was soon followed by her bother Johan (John). The three siblings were able to emigrate because Aunt Sophie, her mother’s sister,  agreed to sponsor them.  Her brothers Erwin, Siegfried, and Adolf, and sister Rosemarie remained in Europe, and it would be several decades before she saw any of them again.

In Austria, Jackie worked for a tailor, and in Cleveland she worked in several sewing factories, Brunner, Joseph and Feiss, and Lampl Knitwear. Jackie knew no English when she reported to her first job at Brunner—only the name of the foreman. She said that she did not understand the bus system or the money when she reported to work, so when she got on the bus she held out her hand with coins and let the driver take what was necessary, and at the end of the shift walked back home.  At first, home was a room in the home of another aunt, “Nette”, Sophie’s sister. Later, she shared a two-room apartment with her brother, John, that had a shared bath with the upstairs apartment. 

Like many immigrants, Jackie relied on German social clubs for recreation and information. This is where she also met her husband, Rudolf “Rudy” Schreiber. Rudy always loved children, and the first time she saw him, he was holding a baby so she avoided him as a potential romantic connection. She met him again at another social event and discovered that he was not attached to the baby or another woman. Once they began a romantic relationship, they were married only 6 weeks later. The ceremony was held at St. Stephen’s Catholic church on November 14, 1953. Jackie said the reception was paid for by opening the gift envelopes they had received and pulling the money out.

Jackie’s first child, Rudolf “Rudi”, was born April 2, 1956, followed by Irene on October 26, 1958, and Doris on March 7, 1960. Jackie was pregnant with her 4th child when they bought a home on W. 47 Street in early 1962, and Richard was born July 26, 1962. Heidi, the youngest, was born September 4, 1965.  This would be the family home until all the children grew up and moved out.  It would be the hub where there were many family gatherings over the years. Jackie used her sewing skills and made many of the children’s clothes, and many of those clothes were handed down to younger children or exchanged among neighbors’ children. She also sewed clothes for some of the neighbors’ kids and sometimes did alterations for neighbors.  She may have gotten a dollar or two for sewing, but that’s now why she did it.

Jackie had the most important job of raising 5 children while Rudy worked in construction, at first, then as a meat cutter, and then a factory work. Rudy often had part-time jobs in addition to full-time work. The family also supplemented their income by using the basement as an improvised butcher shop where Rudy would buy and custom-process sides of beef for people’s freezers and Jackie would wrap meat and clean equipment with the help of the children who were old enough. There was also the occasional deer that Rudy skinned and processed for hunters who managed to bag one.

Rudy had injuries that sometimes resulted in hospital stays and lean times for the family when there were hospital bills to pay and Rudy wasn’t working to pay them. Rudy, a lifelong smoker, developed lung cancer after all the children had grown. Jackie was Rudy’s principal care giver while he underwent numerous surgeries to try to cure the cancer. Rudy succumbed to the cancer in his body in 1995.  The grandchildren who got to know Rudy and Jackie were Anthony and Andrew, Irene’s children, Christina and Eric, Doris’s children, and Brittney, Rock, and Clay, Heidi’s children. The last grandchild, also named Rudy, was not born until 2 years after Rudy’s death.

After her children grew up, Jackie also worked as a cafeteria worker in various Cleveland public schools. She retired in 1998 and lived well enough on her own.  Jackie kept the house in Cleveland until she decided that it was too much work to keep up alone and moved to a house in Berea in 2008. In Berea, Jackie became involved in the local Catholic church and the Senior Network housed in the Berea Recreation Center, where she gained more loving friends. Jackie had always feared water and did not like to go on boats and would always stay on shore or just wade when the family took outings to swimming spots. At the Rec. Center, though, Jackie used the swimming pool several times a week, besides playing on the senior Wii Bowling League and playing cards. At age 80, Jackie was diagnosed with cancer, and with the help of her medical team and the support of family, she overcame that hurdle. In the following years, Jackie had other health challenges and still managed to overcome them. Recently, though, Jackie made one last trip to the hospital, but managed to rally enough strength to come home again. Before she passed, Jackie spent many hours with as many of her friends and family as she could and finally died peacefully at home with her grandson Clay at her side.

A Mass of Christian Burial, will be celebrated at St. Adalbert Church, Berea, Ohio on Wednesday January 13, 2021 at 11:30 AM. Final resting place will be at Holy Cross Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions suggested to either the Berea Community Outreach Senior Program https://cityofberea.org/274/Berea-Community-Outreach or to Catholic Charities od Cleveland,  Ways to Give | Catholic Charities Diocese of Cleveland. Friends received (WITH SOCIAL DISTANCING AND MASKS) Tuesday 4 – 8 PM at the A. RIPEPI AND SONS FUNERAL HOME, 18149 BAGLEY ROAD, MIDDLEBURG HEIGHTS, OH (West of I-71).

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