Mary Jane Stopschinski Sternberg

Mary Jane Aiken Stopschinski Sternberg September 30, 1930-August 28, 2015 Mary Jane Aiken Stopschinski Sternberg passed away August 28, 2015. Her funeral service will be held at 3:00 p.m., Friday, September 25, at Wilkirson-Hatch-Bailey Funeral Home, 6101 Bosque Blvd., Waco, Texas, 76710. Jane will be buried next to her parents in San Benito, Texas. Jane was born in San Benito, Texas, on September 30, 1930, to Erris Madison, a football coach, sports director and avid offshore fisherman, and Mary Moselle Johnson nee Aiken, an English teacher at San Benito High School. She attended Baylor University, graduating with a Bachelor of Music in 1952 and a Masters in Music Education in 1954. She then attended The Juilliard School in New York City where she studied under Marcel Grandjany. It was in New York City that she met Heinz David "Hank" Stopschinski who was fresh off the boat from Germany. Jane and Hank married, moved to the Westbury neighborhood of Houston, and raised five children. Jane had a private piano studio for 30 years. She taught harp and assisted with the Houston Harp Ensemble under the direction of Beatrice Schroeder Rose who was Godmother to one of her children. She was a member of the Houston Music Teachers Association for over 25 years. In part to earn extra money for the family, but mostly because of her love of dogs, Jane raised and bred dogs, her favorite being a Shar-Pei named Singh-aloo. Jane loved to travel. She mastered the German language with ease and took family trips overseas whenever possible. In addition, she insisted her children be exposed to their father's native country and provided the opportunity for them to live with their grandparents in Hanigsen, Germany, where they attended school. Her children were involved in piano, harp, viola, ballet, hand bells, choir, church, drama, baseball, basketball, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, symphonies and operaand with five children, there were costumes to sew! Her legacy is clearly evident in the chosen paths of her children and grandchildren, some of whom make a living as professional musicians. In 1995, Jane moved to Waco and married Daniel Sternberg, dean of the school of music at Baylor for over 40 years and leader of the Waco Symphony Orchestra. In Waco, Jane was very involved with the Waco Symphony, volunteered at the senior center teaching computer classes, and spent countless hours volunteering at the Waco Meals on Wheels. Several years ago, she took a 90-day trip around the world that included climbing the steps of the Great Wall of China, watching a Russian ballet in St. Petersburg, flying in a 12-seater plane over the Himalayas, and crawling thru a low ceiling to enter one of the great pyramids of Egypt. Jane loved to read. She once wrote to Agatha Christie asking for a list of all of her books which she then read top to bottom. In the past few years, her readings included the entire works of Shakespeare and The Holy Bible, cover to cover. Always trying to better herself, Jane was teaching herself Russian, hoping again to visit Russia. Jane was full of lifeshe was interesting, smart, talented, witty, and determined. She exposed her children to the wonderful, big world that is out there, urging them to go out and experience different cultures and hear different languages all over the world. Jane crossed the Atlantic once or twice a year for the past 15 years, accompanied for the last several years by her original travel companion, Heinz Stopschinski. In her words, spending summers in Hanigsen was much preferred to ANY part of a Texas summer. It was there, in a hospital near her summer home, that she passed away with her eldest daughter Suzanne by her side and Mozart playing in the background. It is fitting that she was in her adopted homeland at her passing. She is survived by her five children and five grandchildren, Mary Suzanne Burris and husband, Harral, and daughter, Chelsea, of New York City; Jane Michelle Heller and son, Ross Norcom, of Dallas; Elizabeth Shaw and husband, Peter, and son, Andrew, of Houston; Karl Stopschinski and wife, Sarah, and children, Ada and Henry of Brenham; and Peter Stopschinski and wife, Lana Lesley, of Austin. Expressions of sympathy may be made in the form of donations to the Waco Symphony Foundation Daniel Sternberg Fund in memory of Jane Stopschinski Sternberg, P. O. Box 1201, Waco, Texas 76703.