Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022
Marie D. “Mayme” Keup was born in Belle Plaine, Minnesota in 1893 to August Johann Keup (1855-1950) and Pauline Polly Bauer Keup (1866-1961).
Mayme married Adolph Conrad Frederich Schroeder in Belle Plaine on April 18, 1923. Adolph was born on May 5, 1884, in Shakopee, son of Herman Frederick Schroeder (1854-1922) and Marie Mary Reinke Schroeder (1851-1932). Adolph’s father owned a brickyard which developed into the Schroeder Brick and Lime Manufacturing Company. It was one of the leading and most prosperous business enterprises of the city and was well known in the northwest. While Adolph ran the business, Mayme helped in the office.
Adolph died in 1949, and Mayme became a widow. But she was a dedicated citizen of Shakopee and was involved in numerous activities in the area.
Mayme helped the United Fund and Red Cross. She was the Scott County chairwoman. She also served as secretary of the Shakopee Chamber of Commerce, and she was also head of the cemetery association.
In an article in the January 28, 1965 Shakopee Valley News, “You Name-It. Mrs. Mayme Schroeder’s Done Her Part,” Mayme was named recipient of the WCCO Radio “Good Neighbor Award” on January 25, 1965. She had lived in Shakopee for more than forty years. She had been a godmother and adopted aunt to several generations of children, attending baptisms, graduations, marriages, and she kept a well-stocked cookie jar handy, according to the article. She had been a backbone of the Scott County Red Cross since 1932 and had been a Sunday school teacher for 22 years. The blood program started in 1950, and Mayme nursed it and worked steadily for fifty years.
Mayme did county welfare work – before we had a county welfare department, according to the article. March of Dimes, Cancer Fund, Heart Fund, United Fund – you name it – and this lady had been part of it. And she still had the neighborly habit of sending over a big kettle of soup or fresh baked apple pie to families where illness or accidents struck.
In 1965, Mayme was named one of 100 Outstanding Minnesotans. She would feed those affected, many times taking brackets, linens, and supplies from her own closet to administer to those in need. She also helped locate and reunite many families of servicemen. She was vice-president of the Minnesota Red Cross Hospital Service in 1946, where she spent countless hours supplying comfort articles to patients in Veteran’s Hospitals, according to an article in the Shakopee Valley News, February 25, 1965.
At St. John’s Lutheran Church in Shakopee, Mayme had been a pillar of strength. She had been a Sunday school teacher for twenty years, president of the Ladies Aid Society and Women of the Church activities group. She was also the first woman to serve on the finance and building committees, and the first chairwoman of the church’s Lutheran Welfare Society.
In a 1971 Shakopee Valley News article, Mayme noted that she joined the Shakopee Booklover’s Club and had been with the group ever since that time. “We’re kind of proud of the fact that the club has been active since 1903,” Mayme chuckled, “And they say women can’t get along!”
One Shakopee man noted her volunteer service in numerous civic, fraternal, and church groups, and “has done more good for the county than any other person I know,” according to a Shakopee Valley News, June 30, 1971 article called “With Red Cross Over Half Century … Mayme Takes Her Swing at Everything.”
For the last 25 years, Mayme was secretary, treasurer, and manager of the Valley Cemetery Association, and when Marie “Mayme” Keup Schroeder died on July 22, 1973, at St. Francis Hospital, she was buried in Valley Cemetery, next to her husband, according to an article in in the Jordan Independent, July 26, 1973.
Bibliography
“You Name-It. Mrs. Mayme Schroeder’s Done Her Part.” Shakopee Valley News, 28 Jan. 1965.
Shakopee Valley News, 25 Feb. 1965.
Geis, Lois. “With Red Cross Over Half Century … Mayme Takes Her Swing at Everything.” Shakopee Valley News, 30 June 1971.
Jordan Independent, 26 July 1973.