OXFORD – It is with great sadness that we announce the peaceful passing of our dearly beloved mother, Lorraine Schank, on Thursday evening, Sept. 22, 2011 at about 10 p.m.  
Having turned 92 last March 16th, she lived a long, full life, and will be fondly remembered by her family and friends.  
A resident of Oxford for 15 years, Lorraine A. (nee Church) Schank, born in Stevens Point, Wisconsin in 1919, was the daughter of Clarence E. and Edna Ruth (nee Clark) Church and is survived by ex-husband Kenneth L. Schank Ed.D of Wisconsin, New York and Florida; three daughters: Karen Mills of Florida, Kendra Schank Smith PhD and her husband Albert C. Smith III PhD, of Toronto, and Lori McGonigal and her husband Joseph P. McGonigal Jr. of New Jersey; three granddaughters: Lorraine Emma Mills of Oxford, Lorna G. and Katherine L. McGonigal of New Jersey; as well as her brother David C. Church and his wife Joyce of Wisconsin; her sister Carol Bilhorn and her husband William of California; her brother-in-law Gordon V. Jones of Massachusetts; and many nieces and nephews in California, New York, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Virginia. She was predeceased by sisters Rev. Winifred C. Jones, of Massachusetts, and Rachel Malick, and her husband Walter, of Stevens Point.
A 1941 graduate of the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point, Lorraine played clarinet with the university marching band, was trained as an elementary educator and then taught in the Waupaca and Tigerton, Wisconsin schools. Throughout her life, Lorraine was active in the American Baptist Churches USA, American Baptist Women’s Ministries, American Baptist Churches of the Niagara Frontier, and was a founding contributor of the Green Lake Conference Center in 1943, as well as attending the first Baptist youth conference there in June of 1944. She was a leader and an involved member of the First Baptist Churches of Stevens Point and Racine, Wisconsin, Brighton Community Baptist Church in Tonawanda, and United Church of Oxford, in Oxford. She traveled widely with expeditions to visit and support the ABC International Ministries mission fields in Kinshasa, Zaire (now DR Congo), and India and with pilgrimages to the holy land in Jerusalem, surrounding biblical areas of Israel, and tracing the footsteps of St. Paul including Corinth and Ephesus.
Mrs. Schank was a lifelong member of the American Association of University Women, was a proud supporter of UNICEF and the World Wildlife Federation, and was an accomplished bridge player.  
A memorial service will be planned for the spring of 2012.