"She was the best of us"

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Mary Beth (Latenser) Schmidt was a mother, sister, aunt, grandmother, and cousin to her family. To others, she was a friend, teacher, mentor and trusted confidant.

Born June 19th 1951, the second of thirteen children of John and Barbara Ann (Marsee) Latenser. She died peacefully at her home April 15th, 2026 after a yearlong struggle with ALS.

She was baptized and received her early sacraments at St. Mary parish, later renamed Immaculate Heart of Mary, in Kansas City, Missouri. Immaculate Heart was the center of Latenser family life growing up. There were countless parish picnics, ice cream socials and Sunday breakfasts in the park along Brush Creek, which doubled as the school playground - unless it was raining.

She attended the eight-room parish school at Immaculate Heart, guided by the firm hands of the Sisters of Charity – Leavenworth. Always a standout student, she graduated in 1965 and enrolled at Bishop Hogan High School.

Growing up, Mary Beth was her mother’s able assistant. She helped pack multiple lunches for school every day, pressed uniforms and blouses, helped with homework, braided hair, shined school shoes and sewed outfits for her siblings. She performed these and other tasks with a smile, often with a handwritten note and always with the patience of a saint.

Even around these family duties she still made time to enjoy ’60’s music, keep up with current fashions, and wear the popular hairdo, aided by her cherished pink, two-piece, oversized, giant hair curlers that she still owned and continued to use even recently!

Mary Beth was a thoroughly modern young woman… smart, talented and independent. She saw and experienced life in all its textures and depth. She had a keen mind and sharp wit and approached life with curiosity and integrity. Her gentle way, calm demeanor and attentive listening served her well in everything she did.

After graduating from Bishop Hogan High school in 1969, Mary Beth began her college studies at Penn Valley Community College, where she wrote for the school newspaper. She continued her studies at University of Missouri at Columbia before taking a break to work, ultimately finishing her Liberal Arts degree at UMKC in 1998 while working full time and raising her family.

Mary Beth had a varied and impressive professional career. In her early working years, she was a governess to two young children and enjoyed extensive travel with the family. She brought her artistic talents and eye for detail to the antiques shop she managed in Westport, successfully managing the business side of the shop while dazzling her customers with pleasingly coordinated and arranged displays. She was an accomplished business owner, starting and building a successful gift shop in Brookside.

In 1987, she began a new journey that would be her life’s work for the next 33 years. Mary Beth became the Art Teacher at St Peter’s School in Brookside where she built a lauded art program. Her artistic talent, patient temperament, gentle wisdom and ability to meet every student where they were and challenge them to be their best were the gifts she gave all who passed through her classroom. She shared her exceptional design and calligraphy skills on school and parish publications, school art and science fairs and the annual Santa’s Spree. Each year she published the school yearbook, spending long evenings and weekends creating a meaningful lifetime keepsake for the students and their parents.

While working, she met her future husband, Barry Schmidt. They were married in 1975 and welcomed four beautiful daughters in as many years. Mary Beth’s siblings were a built-in team of eager, doting babysitters for Abby, the first Latenser grandchild, twins Jessie and Christine, and lovely Emily, who together are affectionately known as “the girls.”Mary Beth shared her exceptional artistic, culinary, literary and myriad other talents with her girls every day. She drew on the wise, soft-spoken, deliberate counsel of her own mother, who knew a few things about raising strong women, to raise strong, independent and forward thinking women herself.

Mary Beth was fiercely determined that her girls would receive the best possible education. She was intensely proud that each of her daughters received a private education - elementary school through college - and was never intimidated by the countless FAFSA forms or frank conversations with a college business office. As she did so consistently in her life, she worked hard to accomplish what she knew had to be done for her family.

While raising her daughters, teaching more than full-time at St Peter’s parochial school, and continuing to be a big sister to her younger sisters, Mary Beth formed an exceptionally close circle of friends who brought her joy and steadfastly supported her through life’s challenges. These friends, along with her family, and her deep faith, were the support that sustained Mary Beth through the tragic loss of her daughter Jessie in a car accident at age 27. Nothing would ever fill the hole in Mary Beth’s heart after losing Jessie. These friends provided the same comfort when her parents John and Barbara, brother Jim, and sister Meg died.

Mary Beth’s ten sisters were a consistent touchstone in her life. They did exactly what close sisters do: laugh, cry, praise, criticize, support, fuss, compete, argue, agree, share, swipe, return. Anytime they were together, the talk was loud, the laughs were constant, the tears were tender and the love was always present.

Mary Beth’s talents as a seamstress are evident in many places, including the very special family funeral pall. Mary Beth carried on the beautiful tradition started by Aunt Mary of lovingly hand stitching the names of deceased family members on the pall. Her calligraphy skills are seen on nearly all of her extended family’s wedding and funeral programs and thousands of St Peter’s publications. Her baking skills were envied. Baked Alaska, pecan and cinnamon rolls, hot fudge sauce and bran rolls were several specialties that we all savored.

Her ALS diagnosis in 2025 was no match for her strong faith, positive spirit and gritty determination to remain in and part of the lives of her daughters Abby, Christine and Emily, and her grandchildren, Emilia and Michael. Beyond that, her brother and sisters, nieces, nephews and many close friends were her allies in that struggle.

Mary Beth is preceded in death by her daughter Jessie Fox, her parents, John and Barbara Latenser, her brother Jim Latenser, sister Meg Latenser Nicely, niece Monica Lippold, nephew Ben Walter, niece Madeleine Walter, and brother-in-law Jim Nelson.

Mary Beth is survived by her daughter Abby and partner Jamie Sturtewagen, daughter Christine Schmidt and son-in-law Evan Gross, grandchildren Emilia and Michael Gross, daughter Emily and son-in-law Nathan Bovos.

She is also survived by her siblings, Marcy Nelson, John (Mary) Latenser, Kathy (Terence) Glynn, Barbara (Larry) Yoksh, Sharon (Mike) Madrigal, Laura (Tom) Walter, Janet (Joe) Sommerhauser, Judy Latenser, Jeannie (Tim Stumpff) Latenser, and Amy Latenser, sister-in-law, Mona Latenser, 36 nieces and nephews, 34 great nieces and great nephews, and the hundreds of her former students, who were treasured and gave great purpose to her life.

Mary Beth built a life filled with creativity and beauty. We invite all who attend her services to wear all colors of the palette as we celebrate her spirit and the inspiration she provided for us all to see life more vividly.

Those who would like to make a donation to the Mary Beth Schmidt Fund at St. Peter’s School or the Sisters, Servants of Mary in Mary Beth’s honor are welcome to use these links above or leave in the provided envelopes at the services.