Janet R. Schwarze was born March 9, 1946, in Valparaiso, Indiana and died June 17, 2025, in Rochester, Minnesota. She was the daughter of Dale and Lorraine Fauser. She grew up in Crown Point, Indiana during her early years and then moved with her family to rural Greenwood, Wisconsin as a teenager.
Her father was employed as a body mechanic in Indiana, until he bought a farm near Greenwood, WI and the whole family had to learn what farming was all about. Janet arose at 4:30 a.m. during her high school years to help milk cows because her dad helped farm another area farm with her older brother. As a teenager, she had to catch the bus home from school every day and help with the evening milking. After such busy days she was often too tired to study in the evening. However, she still did well in school, earning mostly B's, along with a few A's and C's. Janet and Stan became acquainted in school when she was a sophomore, and he was a junior at Greenwood High School. They started to date late in his junior and her sophomore years. They often went to Friday night movies in either Greenwood or Marshfield. Stan went out for sports in high school, so once they started dating Janet liked to attend school sporting events in which Stan was involved.
Janet graduated from Greenwood High School in 1964, and after vocational training at UW-Eau Claire, she found a job as a dental assistant in Eau Claire. Stan graduated from Greenwood High School in 1963 and went on to college at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Janet married Stan Schwarze on June 12, 1965 and the newlyweds found a cute apartment in Eau Claire, within walking distance for Stan to continue attending college. Janet took a bus to work then as it was quite a bit further for her to get to work as a dental assistant.
After Stan graduated from college in June 1967, they moved to Rochester, Minnesota and Stan went to work at IBM. Janet’s job in Minnesota after re-joining the workforce was that of an interior decorator for a house builder doing decorating for the new houses. Janet loved that job, but after a few years the housing business started to falter. Janet was laid off from that job and became a stay-at-home mom. Janet had her first daughter, Laura, shortly after they moved to Rochester, in August 1967. Her second daughter, Jana, was born February 1969. Janet loved to sew. She sewed many really nice outfits for women who were very happy with her work.
One of Janet and Stan’s lifelong passions was promoting local history and genealogy. Despite living in Minnesota, they spent many hundreds of hours returning to Clark County, Wisconsin and research time at the Register of Deeds office in Neillsville. They also spent lots of time visiting Clark County cemeteries and libraries to transcribe grave and family records. In 2000, and with Stan’s expertise in the computer field, he and Janet became the founding members and webmasters of the Clark County, Wisconsin “History Buff” website. The site was organized as an online “Library” and became very popular. The site was recognized in 2009 by the State of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Historical Society with a special Governor’s Award. They became well known throughout Clark County as active leaders in the preservation of local history. They retired from the web site in December 2024, after 25 years.
Even before retirement, but especially after retiring, Janet and Stan traveled the world. They visited all 50 states and about 25 different countries. It was very enjoyable for both!
Unexpectedly, on June 17, 2025, Janet was struck by a sudden illness. She was taken to the hospital in an ambulance and doctors and nurses worked on her all day to try to bring her back. Near midnight on that day, she died at the age of 79. It was diagnosed as a form of pneumonia.