basque heritage worldwide
02/25/2022 - Buffalo, Wyoming, USA
Mass of Christian Burial for Judi Semroska, 77-year-old, long-time Buffalo resident who passed away suddenly at her home in Buffalo on Friday, will be celebrated Monday March 7th at 10:00 a.m. at the St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Buffalo with Father Peter Johnson as Celebrant. A Vigil Service will be held and the Rosary recited on Sunday at 6:00 p.m. at the Harness Funeral Home Chapel in Buffalo. Visitation will be held on Sunday from 1:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. at the Funeral Home Chapel. Interment will be in the Semroska Family Plot in the Montrose Cemetery in Montrose, Nebraska adjacent to the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church on a date and time to be announced. Donations in Judi’s memory may be made to the Judi Semroska Memorial, a fund set up to help the family with final expenses in care of the Harness Funeral Home at 351 N. Adams in Buffalo
Judith Ann Semroska was born on Groundhog Day, February 2, 1945 in Hot Springs, South Dakota to Fritz and Ruth Semroska. The family moved to live and work on a ranch 5 miles northeast of Chadron, Nebraska, when Judi was about two. By the time she was 13, her father had been told by his doctor to find less stressful work. They moved to Mirage Flats, Nebraska, where Fritz worked as a school custodian and bus driver while Judi’s mother, Ruth, was a teacher in a consolidated county school. The moves didn’t bother her much as, like most rural and ranching families, she was close to her brother and surrounded by several cousins as well. The family’s final move to Buffalo, Wyoming, which offered Ruth a better paying teaching position, and Fritz, a job with the Wyoming Highway Department, came in 1961 when Judi was a junior. She graduated from Johnson County High School two years later with the class of. 1963. After high school she attended the University of Wyoming and Chadron State College earning a degree in Theatre with minors in both Music and Spanish.
In the 61 years she called Buffalo her home, she worked at the Crossroads Best Western as a night auditor and desk clerk, the Wyoming Bank as a teller, a few years of home health care and CNA work at Amie Holt, the Johnson County Clerk’s Office working in the title center, and most recently, the Best Western SureStay Hotel. She was still working for the hotel when the pandemic hit and she was laid off. Her retirement came at the close of the pandemic restrictions in 2021, and the past year was an adjustment in figuring out what to do with her free time – something she’d never before had as she often worked two jobs simultaneously. It would be an understatement to say the library saw her frequently.
Throughout her life, however, her enthusiasm remained focused on music. As she had played by ear from the age of four, she found the opportunity to play the accordion in dance bands, sing with the Sweet Adelines and play the organ for Catholic Masses and many funerals at St. John The Baptist Catholic Church, which she did for over fifty years. Judi felt called to return to God this gift he had given her and never failed to credit Him for her talent. In addition to music, many could attest to her love of reading, crocheting, bingo and the occasional puzzle. But above all her passion was spending time with her family. Judi was a fireball… easily riled up when she witnessed an injustice and just as easily inspired to lend a hand even when there was nothing left for herself. She made her mark not in grand gestures, but in the quiet generosity and kindnesses that touched the lives of others daily.
She is survived by one brother, Richard Semroska and his wife, Barb, of Lakewood, CO; her only child, Kristine Semroska of Roanoke, VA; two grandchildren, Kaden Schuman and his fiancé, Dulce, of Buffalo, WY, and Allegra Schuman and her two children, Jayde and Franklin, of Roanoke, VA. She is also survived by her longtime partner, Dennis Camino of Buffalo, and her dearest friend and “sister,” Rubyjean Hudson of Sheridan, who are family by love rather than blood. She was preceded in death by her parents.
(published at Harness Funeral Home)
Denis Caminoren lagunkidea, akordeoia jotzen zuen eta hala egin zuen frangotan euskal meza eta dantzetan. Gogoan zaitugu.
Goian Bego (GB) - May she Rest in Peace
© 2014 - 2019 Basque Heritage Elkartea
Bera Bera 73
20009 Donostia / San Sebastián
Tel: (+34) 943 316170
Email: info@euskalkultura.eus