Rachel Ann Hiebert

Rachel Ann Schoberg was born to Gustav L. and Anne (Rosheim) Schoberg on December 28, 1937, in St. Luke’s Hospital in Fargo, North Dakota. She was baptized at home by her grandfather, The Reverend G. O. Schoberg, with her uncle Clemens Schoberg and The Reverand Fredrik Schoitz serving as sponsors.

Rachel was a lifelong resident of Moorhead, Minnesota, and attended the public schools, graduating in 1955.  She then enrolled in Concordia College in Moorhead where both of her parents taught.  She majored in history and minored in German.  She became a member of the Concordia Concert Choir in her freshman year and toured Norway, Germany, and Austria with the choir after her junior year.  She graduated summa cum laude in 1959.  She taught one year in St. Peter, Minnesota and then studied German further as a special student at the University of Minnesota. She taught German in Faribault, MN.  In 1962, she took a job teaching German at both junior high schools in Moorhead.  In 1964, Rachel was awarded a NDEA Academic Year scholarship at Colorado University in Boulder, Colorado, where she met her future husband, Willard Hiebert.  She returned to teaching in Moorhead the following year.

Rachel and Willard were married on June 26^th, 1965, in Trinity Lutheran Church in Moorhead.  She continued to teach for two more years at South Junior High.  She resigned to become the mother of her first son, Michael, in 1968. Her second son, Alan, was born 3 years later.

During the next decade, she concentrated on raising her two sons and starting her hobby of rosemaling.  Rosemaling became her passion over the next three decades. She showed her work in the National Rosemaling Exhibition in Dacorah, Iowa, and studied under two Norwegian rosemaling masters, Niels Ellingsgard and Sigmund Orseth.  She also demonstrated and sold rosemaling at various festivals including Folklarama in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and did many commissioned works.

She reentered the teaching profession again in 1983, teaching German and winning the Percy Feering Award for her newly designed elementary curriculum. She continued to teach German and social studies until her retirement in 1999.  After retiring, she enjoyed participating in the monthly gatherings of the Moorhead Retired Teachers.

Throughout the eighties and beyond, she sang in the Trinity Cathedral Choir, The Trinity Triple Trio, and the Fargo-Moorhead Master Chorale. She promoted her sister’s composed hymns at every possible opportunity and participated in every Concordia Choir reunion.  She also participated in several Bible study groups at Trinity.

From 1995 on she thoroughly loved being with her four grandchildren: Alyssa, Andrew, Peter, and Jessica Hiebert at the lake cabin near Park Rapids and elsewhere.

She continued living in her home until December of 2016 when she moved into an assisted living apartment in Linden Tree Circle at Eventide.  She continued to celebrate together all family events until she was no longer able to leave Eventide.  She died on March 14, 2024.

She was preceded in death by her by her parents, her sister Borghild, her brother-in-law Harvey Jacobson, her niece Patty Walling and Patty’s two children.  She is survived by her two sons, Mike and Alan, her daughter-in-law, Kathryn Hiebert, her four grandchildren, Alyssa, Andrew, Peter and Jessica, her nephew Paul Jacobson, two nieces (Maren McCue and Barbara Andrews), her sister-in-law Gladys Walling, and her ex-husband, Willard.

Visitation will be from 10:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M., followed by the funeral service at 11:00 A.M., Tuesday, March 19, 2024, at Trinity Lutheran Church, Moorhead, MN. Burial will take place at Prairie Home Cemetery, Moorhead, MN, following the service.

 In lieu of flowers, memorials preferred to Trinity Lutheran Church Capital Fund.