Julie Schlick

Goodland, Kansas, resident, Julie Lee Schlick, 78, died Sunday, September 24, 2017, at the Medical Center of Aurora, in Aurora, Colorado.

She was born March 29, 1939, in Drumright, Oklahoma, the daughter of Bonnie Lee (Hawkins) and Ferris Pete Saffa. She attended elementary and secondary schools in Drumright and later completed a one year accounting vocational training program in Salina, KS, before establishing residence in Hays, Kansas. There she eventually met and married her husband, Ralph George Schlick on November 22, 1962. During the first six years of their lives together they welcomed into their lives their three daughters, Mary, Betty, and Suzie and lived for a time in the Kansas communities of Hays, Salina, and Pratt and Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Eventually, they settled in Hays in 1968 and lived for nearly 45 years before moving to assisted living at Wheat Ridge Acres in Goodland, Kansas, starting in 2014.  Altogether, Julie and Ralph enjoyed 53 years of marriage before his departing a year and a half ago.

Besides raising her three daughters, Julie worked various part-time secretarial and restaurant service jobs until 1973 when she and Ralph became mobile home park managers of Countryside Estates and Countryside West in Hays and did so for almost ten years.  During her leisure time she enjoyed tending to her flowers, playing cards with friends, engaging in various craft projects, and reading.

Throughout her life, people described Julie as a one of a kind lady who often surprised people by her directness and attention to detail. Not everyone appreciated her outspoken nature, but if someone were wise enough to look past her sometimes "sparky" exterior, he/she recognized in Julie a person who experienced a lot of early life pain who was doing her best to move beyond it. She was a very caring, loving person for whom family, loyalty, responsibility and justice mattered deeply. More than probably anything else, she was most proud of her loving husband, daughters and grandchildren.

Preceding her in death were her parents, siblings Joseph Michael and an infant brother, son-in-law, Tom Rohr, and husband, Ralph.

Surviving family includes daughters Mary Warren and her husband Craig of Salina; Betty Rohr of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Suzie Reichert and her husband, Keith of Denver, Colorado; five grandchildren Anthony Warren, Jessica Warren, Anthony Rohr, Katrina Rohr, Sheldon Nelson; and five great-grandchildren.