Eunice’s Obituary Eunice Lorena (Schweiter) Nixon was born August 20, 1914 in Wichita, Kansas, the third of four children to Otto and Bertha (Schmid) Schweiter. As a child, she was surrounded by loving family and nurtured by her grandparents, Henry and Caroline (Gardiner) Schweiter, and John and Josephine (Kautzman) Schmid. Most of Eunice’s childhood was spent on the sprawling 160‑acre Schweiter homestead.
The farmstead encompassed the large area along Chisholm Creek between Lincoln and Harry from Hillside to Hydraulic, including the area now known as Linwood Park which was deeded by her grandfather to the City of Wichita in 1887. Eunice, along with her brothers Otis and Henry and her sister Hildred, grew up observing the wheat farming and cattle raising operations on the farm while playing in the family vineyards and apple orchards and performing childhood chores. As part of her heritage, Eunice inherited a deep sense of pride at being a Wichita native, balanced by the strong foundation of Swiss and German values carried by her grandparents on their journeys as immigrants from across the Atlantic.
Eunice attended grade school at Linwood Elementary and later graduated from Wichita East High School in the Class of 1933. She enrolled at The University of Wichita where she graduated in 1937 with a Liberal Arts degree in Home Economics in 1937. On September 16th, 1939 Eunice married her sweetheart, Bill Nixon, whom she had met while both were teachers at Isabel, Kansas.
Bill began work in Washingon, D.C. where they made a home and had their first child, Sally. In 1944 Bill was accepted into KU Med School via the U.S. Army and they moved to Kansas City. During this period, their second daughter, Marti, was born.
In 1948 after Bill completed med school and his Army assignment, Eunice and Bill moved to Macksville, Kansas where Bill established private medical practice and, at the same time, their family grew to include their first son, Kip. Then in 1955 they moved again this time to Philadelphia where Bill entered grad school at the University of Pennsylvania. And, of course, with their new home came another arrival, their second son, Bill.
Finally, in 1959 Eunice and Bill returned with the four children to Wichita where Dr. Nixon established his surgical practice and the family settled into their home in the Schweiter addition at Lincoln and Hillside. It was there, back on the same land on which she herself had been raised, that Eunice and Bill completed the business of raising their family. In 2008 Bill passed away and, shortly after, Eunice moved from the family home to the Larksfield retirement community.
She enjoyed and inspired her many, many friends and her extended family which has grown over the years to include four grandchildren (Mark, Stephanie, Stephen, and Gabriel) and nine great‑grandchildren (Erika, Brena, Hannah, Eliza, Ian, Olivia, Abriel, Mallory, and Oliver). Family and friends of Eunice all agree that she was both a delight and an inspiration. Memories of her youth filled her conversations with gems of insight into Wichita’s rich history, yet she was always interested in the ongoing tapestry of stories belonging to each individual she met.
In everything she did, Eunice reflected values of honest living and hard work to her family and all who knew her. She was uncomplicated and very strong and, above all, she was dearly loved by all her family. She was a very special lady.
Visitation will be from 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm, Monday, February 11, 2019, at Downing & Lahey East Mortuary. Graveside Service will be at 1:00 pm, Tuesday, February 12, 2019, at Wichita Park Cemetery. A memorial has been established with the Children’s Burn Unit of the Shriner’s Children Hospital, 2900 North Rocky Point Drive, Tampa, Florida 33607.
Downing & Lahey Mortuary – East Chapel.
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