In 1948, with four kids at home, Max and Edna Schneiderman took a chance on a better life for themselves and their family and bought a run-down general store in rural St. Louis County.

Together, they grew that business near Meadowlands and set the stage for it to become the regional furniture chain that bears their name today. Edna Schneiderman died Tuesday in Duluth at age 100 — 65 years after she and her husband made the gamble that paid off so well.

“My mom was absolutely essential,” to the success of the company, son Larry Schneiderman recalled Friday. “There definitely wouldn’t have been a Schneiderman’s Furniture without both of them.”

Edna Minna Hedwig Kretzschmar was born Dec. 18, 1912 in Swanville in central Minnesota. After her father, a pastor, died at age 49, Edna’s mother held the family together and ensured the family’s six children received good educations.

Edna traveled to Duluth to train as a nurse at St. Luke’s hospital. She met Max Schneiderman on a blind date and they married in 1935 — in secret, Larry Schneiderman said, because the nursing program prohibited married students. The secret got out, though, putting an end to that fledgling nursing career.

Read Entire Story  Source: Duluth News Tribune