Linda Schnepel Ross Hanika

LINDA SCHNEPEL ROSS HANIKA

Monday April 24th, 2017 at 1:pm the beautiful soul of Linda Schnepel Ross Hanika left this world. Born Dec. 17th, 1924 in Council Bluffs, IA, Linda loved living and exploring what life had to offer. She was never content with boredom and was always doing things to make life more fun: riding her bike out into the countryside, making cookie batter for her grandkids and “No, it won’t kill you!”, putting on little kid’s theatres in her basement, selling millions of dollars of real estate, and always walking and staying healthy! And, in her spare time, she and her husband Tim Hanika traveled the world. Her parents, John and Emma Schnepel were German immigrants. They raised her to respect people, be strong through adversity always looking for the bright side, be frugal, and not be afraid to speak her mind. Yep, that was never a problem for Linda/Mom/Oma. And we loved her that much more for it!
Linda grew up in Harlan, IA where her father had a bakery. She was second of four siblings including Gary, Annie and Gerde. During a visit to Illinois she met Glenn Ross, Sr. and married during WWII. As they moved around the US, they had four sons together: John, Glenn, Jr. aka Denner, Jim, and Steve. Finally settling in Washington, IN in 1954, Linda started a Pink Ladies charitable organization at the Daviess County hospital where Glenn Sr. was a Radiologist. At age 30, while raising four boys, she went back to college at Vincennes University. Her focus was in business. In 1964 Linda and Glenn divorced. She moved to Indianapolis with her sons Jim & Steve. Sadly, a year later Jim was killed in a motorcycle accident back in Washington. But, she was lucky to meet the man of her dreams, Tim Hanika in 1966 in Indy. Tim and his beautiful daughters Stephanie and Chris shared their lives with Linda and her sons. Linda and Tim spent several years together before they married in 1970, and spent the rest of their life together loving, living, laughing, sharing family, and traveling. Tim passed away in 2015 at age 91.
How do you wrap up a person’s life in a few brief sentences? Wow, not easy. Certainly there are bits and pieces of her life we’ve left out. To tell the whole story would be a book in itself. The highlights are only mentioned here. If you knew her, and spent any fun and loving time with her, then your memories will fill that book in your mind entitled “Linda”. Thank you Linda/Mom/Aunt/Oma for everything you gave us. We love you and will be with you forever…

(Linda is survived by her sons John, Denner, and Steve, her step-daughters Stephanie and Chris, and their loving families.)