Valerie Schwartz

Paul Young Funeral Home is assisting the Family

Obituary via Paul Young Funeral Home

Valerie Ann “Val” Schwartz (née Rapp), 83, passed away on March 20, 2025, in Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Born on March 28, 1941, in Cincinnati, Val graduated from Hughes High School in 1959, and went on to earn a B.A. in English in 1963 from the University of Cincinnati.  While in college, Val was a member and President of the Alpha Tau chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, and a member of Mortar Board, a national collegiate honor society.

Val married her college sweetheart, Roger H. Schwartz, on September 7, 1963, and the two remained inseparable until Val’s passing.  Together, they built a beautiful life based on love, faith, commitment, hard work, and service to others. Val and Roger moved to Michigan shortly after they were married, and there formed lifelong friendships in their church and wider community before ultimately returning to Cincinnati in 1980.

Val was a devoted, supportive, and loving mother to her two children, Jeffrey Schwartz (Becky) of Kansas City, Missouri, and Jody (Mark) Bruns of Carmel, Indiana. She was a welcoming, kind, and generous mother-in-law, and an amazing Grammy to her grandchildren, Jared (26) and Jadon (21) Schwartz, and Sarah (29), Kate (26), and Claire (23) Bruns. Val truly knew and loved each of her grandchildren, nurturing their unique gifts, cheering them on in their endeavors, and celebrating their accomplishments. In return, they adored her.  

Val has always been close to her sister Nancy Dempsey and Nancy’s husband Jim, as well as to Nancy’s children, Melissa Barnett and Brian Multner.  Val and Nancy served together for decades at the church their family had helped start. Val has also always enjoyed a warm relationship with her sister-in-law Ellie Schwartz and Ellie’s daughter Lori Johanson.  Val has made a point of maintaining strong family ties with extended family members on both her and Roger’s sides of their family. Over the course of her life, Val formed deep, caring friendships with more people than could possibly be named here. And then there were the dogs…her own and others’.  Practically every dog Val ever met just wanted to sit at her feet, gaze up at her face, and let her rub their ears.  

Val knew, loved, and followed Jesus all her life.  Her faith was central to everything she did, and her influence on others’ lives through her service, caring, leadership, and teaching will undoubtedly carry forward for generations. Val’s pastor recently described her as a “cornerstone” of Lifespring Christian Church (previously known as Clovernook Christian Church) in North College Hill. For decades, Val faithfully led an adult Sunday School class and the Thursday Ladies’ Bible Study, teaching the Word of God with a contagious passion. She prepared meticulously for each class she taught, challenged and encouraged the participants, and offered new and thoughtful insights into familiar bible passages. She had a gift for making scripture come alive, helping others see how God’s Word speaks into our everyday lives. In her teaching, her consistent refrain was always “Trust God.”

In addition to her teaching, for over 40 years, Val led the publication of her church’s newsletter, using her gift of words to celebrate, encourage, and honor the service of other members of her church family. And whether it was a kind note, a public thank you, or a simple act of recognition, Val made people feel seen and valued.  She also took great pride in caring for her church’s campus, tending to the landscape and plants to ensure that the grounds were welcoming and reflected the congregation’s love for their God. 

Beyond her own home church, Val also volunteered for 16 years at The Healing Center, a ministry of Vineyard Cincinnati Church, which offers practical, social, emotional, and spiritual support to individuals and families. She treasured both the clients of the Center and the other volunteers and staff with whom she served.

Val’s love for the beauty of God’s creation was also perpetuated through flowers and her gift for arranging them. She worked for several years as a floral designer, most recently at Family Flowers in Blue Ash. She was known as someone who could make any store-bought or hand-gathered bouquet more magical with just a few quick tweaks.  Val maintained a lovely garden at home, growing colorful zinnias and bright gold black-eyed Susans every summer, right next to prolific tomato plants. Through the growing season, Val regularly made and gave away small flower arrangements to delight her neighbors and residents of senior living communities. 

When her grandkids were little, Val’s family frequently gathered for summer vacations at rented lake houses in Michigan or Wisconsin – these trips served as a nostalgic call-back to prior summers spent, when her and Nancy’s kids were small, at Val’s parents’ lake cabin in Canada.  As the grandkids grew and everyone’s schedules became more complicated, Val and Roger’s own home became the ideal hub for family get-togethers, from mid-summer yard parties to Christmas holiday gatherings. Val was a gracious hostess who wisely begin assigning each person in the family an individual job related to meal prep and clean-up, thereby reinforcing the idea that “many hands make light work.”  That cooperative teamwork also made possible the kind of amusement only a Christmas Eve art pancake party can provide. Of course, it also gave Val and Roger more free time to enjoy the grandkids, including epic games of Uno, Phase 10, and Rummy Cue, as well as vintage favorites like Waterworks. But to be clear, Val never “let” her grandkids win – she always played for keeps!

Val was preceded in death by her parents, Ollie and Martha Rapp.  Her memory will live on forever in the hearts of those who knew and loved her.

A visitation is being held at Paul R. Young Funeral Home, 7345 Hamilton Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio on Monday, March 31, 2025 from 5:00-7:00 p.m. A second visitation will be held at Lifespring Christian Church, 1373 W. Galbraith Road, Cincinnati, Ohio on Tuesday, April 1, 2025 from 10:00 a.m. until the time of the funeral service at 11:00 a.m.  Burial will follow at Arlington Memorial Gardens, 2145 Compton Road, Cincinnati, Ohio.  In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a donation to: The Healing Center, 11345 Century Circle W., Cincinnati, Ohio 45246, www.healingcentercincinnati.org; or to Lifespring Christian Church, 1373 W. Galbraith Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45231, www.lifespringchristian.org. http://www.lifespringchristian.org