GERTRUDE EMMA SCHWARZ (1923 – 2017)

Gertrude Emma Schwarz, affectionately known as ‘Gerri’, or ‘Trudy’, was born in Newark, New Jersey on August 3, 1923—an only child of loving parents Edward and Grace Kraft. These adoring parents also raised other family relatives, so Trudy was among a very loving, caring family. She lived through the Great Depression and after finishing high school, as the nation labored through the World War II years, she worked in a factory. In 1946 Trudy married her childhood sweetheart whom she had known since she was three—Navy man Otto C. Schwarz. A survivor of USS Houston (CA-30), Otto had just been liberated from prisoner-of-war camps in Burma and Thailand at the conclusion of WWII.
Gertrude and Otto started a rather simple life in Newark, NJ, raising two sons.
Otto regularly lamented at how he missed, and might never see again, so many fellow shipmates and prisoners of war (many from Australia). At Trudy’s urging he began the process of making contact with those approximately 268 men—an effort which led to the birth of the USS Houston CA-30 Survivors’ Association & Next Generations® which is still alive and well to this day. From 1946 until the very day of Trudy’s passing—71 years!—she served that association as its mentor, inspiration, and in so many ways: its major contributor.
Trudy Schwarz loved her immediate family including: sons Edward and John; daughter-in-law Sara Jane Jelin-Schwarz; granddaughters Jessica, Bessie and Willa and grandsons Jake and Marty. She loved her relatives, friends and neighbors, her Westfield YMCA exercise group and the Union Optimist family. She loved her church, Connecticut Farms Presbyterian, and her bakery family at Romano’s, both in Union, NJ. She came to love her caretakers Anita and Eunice and her Doctor R. Solomon, as well as the entire Hospice Team who cared for her until her passing.
She loved and adored her Survivors’ Association family and the best part is: all of the above truly loved her back!
The Schwarz family is thankful that Gertrude passed away as peacefully as one could ever hope for, at her home in Union, New Jersey on the morning of June 26, 2017.
God Bless and rest in peace this wonderful woman.