Maxine Marie Bridget Sommers died on September 24, 2021. She was born in Crystal Falls, Michigan. She leaves her beloved sons, Stephen Douglas Struve and Joseph Aram, Ernest Struve and her nephews, Dr. Allen Ketcham and Kirk Ketcham .
She attended Milwaukee Downer College for Women, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, transferred to St. Mary's Hospital Health Schools in Galveston, Texas and graduated from the University of Texas Allied Health Schools in Galveston, Texas.
When the dust settled and school was a thing of the past, she stepped into the world of Travel Journalism. As a travel journalist she covered 28 years of extensive travel throughout North America, Europe and the Orient. These world-wide accounts were factually published in various newspapers, magazines, books, and a variety of web sites, all delivered with a great sense of humor. On one occasion when asked about what she thought about dangerous travel in out of the way locations she replied: "Little did I know when I began it would be one adventure after another. Twenty-eight years of living out of a suitcase using various means of transportation such as clinging to the back of a running elephant while charging through a jungle with parts of my clothing flying off, scraping up the side of a mountain while saying my rosary in the back of an ancient, rusty pick-up truck in Thailand or sailing across the South China Sea in a somewhat shaky ship which (by the way) sank with a thud to the bottom of the sea the following year, fortunately, without me on it.
Several years after she began travel writing, she began to teach Creative Writing in various locations, beginning as an Informal Class Instructor at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas with a class entitled: "Organizing, Writing & Publishing Books." For many years she worked as a Freelance Instructor with classes in Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana. Each class began with her favorite statement to students, "A writer's life is a battle; you enter fighting or you surrender immediately... never forget, no failures, only challenges!"
To further enhance her writing and teaching, she owned and operated Pound Sterling Publishing in Corpus Christi, Texas where she wrote as well as published many books.
She was active in several civic organizations. She supported the Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony Society. She was a Symphony Guild member for over 50 years and served as President. She also belonged to a state association, the Texas Association of Symphony Orchestras and served as President. She was a founding member of St. Pius X Catholic Church and was active in several committees in the Parish. She was a Eucharistic Minister at Spohn Hospital Shoreline and was also a member of the Bishop's Guild. In 2012, she was inducted into the Equestrian Order of the of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem.
Maxine's humor, optimism and never-failing sense of adventure will be greatly missed by so many, most especially by her family.
Services will be held on Thursday, January 20, 2022 at St. Pius X Catholic Church beginning with the recitation of the Holy Rosary at 10:30 AM. A funeral mass will be celebrated following the Holy Rosary.
To send flowers
to the family or plant a tree
in memory of Maxine Marie Bridget Sommers, please visit our floral store.