Alice Eileen (Jose) Schumann, died Monday in San Jose. She was 77.
She had been admitted to Santa Teresa Hospital on July 25, suffering with shortness of breath. The condition, pneumonia, attacked her lungs, under treatment of cancer, and Eileen Schumann could not recover. Her children and extended family and friends were with her throughout her stay there.
Mrs. Schumann was born in Suisun, California, the youngest of three children, to Verne and Edith Jose. The family moved to San Jose, and Eileen attended San Jose High School. Yet her father, a truck driver, died when she was 15.
After graduation from San Jose High, Eileen became a librarian for the City of San Jose. She collected stamps and recipes, and her social life after World War II was centered around her family. Her older sister had married and her brother, two years older, was enjoying working on cars and dating.
“I loved the excitement of the time,” Eileen would recall, “And I also felt very safe being around my brother when I went out.” One of her brother’s companions was a veteran Navy submariner, named Harry. Harry worked at a Standard Oil station in what is now South San Jose. Eileen Jose liked the look and the personality of the strapping mechanic.
Because he knew her older brother, Harry Schumann was seen often around the Jose household fixing and repairing cars. As he never paid any attention to her, Eileen took the initiative. She and a girlfriend stopped for gas at Harry’s station. Eileen remembers that “Harry came out and waited on us. He was impressed, I guess, with our shorts so we talked to him for a while and we left. About a week later he called our house but he couldn’t remember what my name was. When my mother answered the phone, he said he wanted to talk to her daughter.”
“Which one?” he was asked, and upon hearing Eileen’s name, he asked to speak to her. They began dating every night for nearly a whole month before he asked her to marry him. She accepted his proposal and they were married in June 1952 at the Trinity Episcopal Church in San Jose and were married 52 years. The couple set up housekeeping in San Jose, and had the first two of their four children. The Schumanns bought their first and only home in Gilroy in 1959.
Eileen was a housewife and worked as an operator for the local telephone company part-time. Another part-time job beckoned, working as a secretary for the Gilroy Presbyterian Church, where she and Harry were members. She worked for the church for 20 years, was a mainstay of its Sunshine Circle, and she worshipped and fellowshipped there until her death.
“It was great to work there,” Mrs. Schumann once said, “because I liked the people, and my family seemed to be always around, helping me fold bulletins, if necessary.”
Her skill with people and telephones would put her into the perfect spot, as switchboard operator and receptionist at Gavilan College, where she retired in 1994. Up until late last year, she would fill in at the college when needed.
Eileen Schumann was a member of the Magnolia Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star in Gilroy since 1965. She was also a sister in the Beta Sigma Phi sorority for the last 44 years. She served as a hospital volunteer at Saint Louise Hospital, was a member of the Women In Touch club. Her “Okey-Dokey” attitude paved the way for other numerous volunteer activities.
Mrs. Schumann is survived by her four children; Steven V. Schumann and his wife Julie of Arroyo Grande, Valerie Schumann Bowe and her husband Michael Bowe of Los Angeles, Virginia Alegre and husband Mel of Gilroy, and Robert H. Schumann of Gilroy. She is also survived by her brother Myron Jose and his wife Billie of San Diego. Eileen has eight grandchildren– Melissa Alatorre, Katherine “Katie” Lucio and husband Greg, and Robert Bimbi III of Gilroy; Jennell, Angela and Nicholas Tizzano of Arroyo Grande; and Michael “Micky” and Sean Bowe of Los Angeles– and nieces Judy Jackson, Diane Jacks, Cheryl Heinrich, Susan Supan, Liane Schreffler, Caryn Kenny and their families.
Eileen was preceded in death by her parents Verne and Edith Jose, her sister Evelyn Gould Rhoads, and her husband Harry Schumann, Jr. She will be greatly missed by all of us.
Memorial service will be Friday, August 17 at 11:00 a.m. at the Gilroy Presbyterian Church.
The family requests donations be made to the Gilroy Presbyterian Church or to the Shriners’ Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto.
