Carmen Maria Wadekamper Schmidtke

Carmen Maria Wadekamper Schmidtke, age 92, passed away Thursday June 19, 2025, in Cary, North Carolina.
Born August 16, 1932, in Faribault, Minnesota, she was the daughter of Rudolph Caesar and Katherine Theresa Spartz Wadekamper.
On March 24, 1950, she was married to Gordon John Schmidtke, who preceded her in death March 28, 2009.
Carmen was born at home at her parent's farmhouse in Shieldsville Township. She spent her early years on a dairy and cattle farm in Minnesota, her parents worked their fields with teams of draft horses, and grew a massive garden in summer. Carmen attended a one-room schoolhouse for grades 1 to 8, where the mothers took turns bringing in lunch each day for the schoolhouse students. They fished and swam on the lakes and ice skated in winter. Carmen graduated from Faribault High School in 1949 and attended nurses training in Rochester, Minnesota.
She worked at the State Schools at Faribault for the mentally disabled, supporting residents as a care giver and later as a dental assistant. Carmen was a kind and amazingly patient person. She was a homemaker, Sunday School teacher, an accomplished seamstress, and packed up and moved 4 children to wherever the Air Force wanted them to move next. Carmen and Gordon traveled and moved with the Air Force to Florida, California, Philippines, and North Carolina. As in many military families, Carmen endured long separations when Gordon was away in Texas, Japan, Korea, Connecticut, Germany, France, England, Michigan, Greenland, Italy, Egypt, and Vietnam.
Carmen was a member of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Fayetteville, North Carolina for 52 years. She taught first and second grade Sunday School for two decades.
Surviving are her children Mary Nance (John, deceased), Gregg (Kathy), Grant, Karen Schaffner (Bret, deceased); grandchildren John Nance, Amanda Ciriello (Anthony), Joseph Nance (Brooke), Katherine Schmidtke (Ben Cottom), Barney Schmidtke (Erin Warner), and Andrew Schaffner; and great-grandchildren Vincent and Reba Ciriello, and Joshua and Alice Schmidtke Cottom. She is survived by many nieces and nephews, and she loved them all.
Preceding her in death were her parents, husband Gordon, brothers Rudolph Wadekamper, James Wadekamper, and William Wadekamper (died infancy).
Funeral arrangements by Cremation Society of Carolinas.
Funeral is planned for Monday, July 14, 2025, at 11:00am at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Memorial contributions may be made for Carmen, in lieu of flowers, to the Smile Train at www.smiletrain.org or Heifer International at www.heifer.org.