Amelia Jacobs

AMELIA JACOBS Funeral services for longtime Cortez resident Amelia Jacobs will be held at 10 a.m. on Thursday, July 7 at St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church. Interment will follow at Cortez Cemetery. Father Pat Valdez C.R. will officiate. A visitation will be held on Wednesday beginning at 6 p.m. at the Catholic Church with a Vigil/Rosary service to follow at 7 p.m. Amelia Jacobs was born on February 10, 1917 in St. Peter, Kansas, the sixth of ten children. Her parents were Andrew and Margaret (Dreiling) Storm Riedel. She passed away at home on June 30, 2011 at the age of 94. Amelia was born into a farm family in a community of Germans from Russia, with many German Russian and Catholic traditions. Among her early memories are traveling and harvesting wheat using horses, learning to drive on a Model T, trying to farm during the Dust Bowl, and sticking together as a family after their mother was widowed for the second time while still a young woman. The family remained close throughout their lives. Amelia was the last of her generation of siblings to pass away. Amelia graduated from Topeka High School. When World War II came, she enjoyed volunteering with the USO in Topeka, and worked a second job in a plant involved in the war effort. On June 16, 1947, she married Victor Jacobs in Hays, Kansas. He was originally from Schoenchen, also a small Kansas German Russian community. Vic and Amelia soon came to Colorado where Vic took a job as the engineer for Empire Electric in Cortez. Amelia worked at an office of lawyers for a time. As their family came to include three children and all their activities, they farmed and raised cattle, fished and enjoyed the outdoors, and were active in their church. Amelia was a charter member of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas Court Sacred Heart #1606, and she was a life member of Southwestern Cowbelles Local 29. She volunteered in the community at the hospital, the Welcome Center, election activities and more. Amelia enjoyed quilting and sewing of any kind. She gardened and preserved the produce. Homemaking activities not only supplied the home; they won ribbons at the county fair. She worked hard on the farm. She also enjoyed office work, including Citizens State Bank and the hospital. She loved to read, and often clipped articles. She took many classes at Fort Lewis College. With Vic, family, and friends, her travels included parts of the US, Mexico, and Canada, and trips to Russia and China. She kept active and loved to walk. She had a quick wit and a tender heart. Amelia was preceded in death by her husband Victor on April 28, 2005, and by her brothers and sisters: John Storm, Joseph A. Riedel, Margaret Riedel, Philomena Crabtree, Rose Hintz, Adolph Riedel, Dionysius (Dan) A. Riedel, Albert A. Riedel, and Benedict (Ben) A. Riedel. She is survived by her daughter Elizabeth Jacobs, son Victor Joseph Jacobs Jr., daughter Mary Ann Fake and husband Douglass, and by two grandchildren, Regina and Veronika.