A memorial service for Maria Bertha Studer 90 of Holly Hill who died February 3 2005 will be held Friday May 27 at 2:00 P.M. in the chapel of Baggett and Summers Funeral Home with Father Paul Kamide officiating. Maria was born in Lucerne Switzerland in October 1914. One of three children she was orphaned when she was seven and was raised by her godmother who had five other children. Maria married a Swiss-American Jacques R. Studer and they came to America in 1940.

They lived on a dairy farm in Middleburg New York for 18 years. Their only child a daughter died following an accident when she was five years old.

Maria and her husband moved to Florida settling in West Palm Beach for eight years. Working as a dietician in the hospital Maria became a supervisor during that time.

In time they decided to return to Switzerland to spend the rest of their lives there. However they soon discovered the climate was too cold and rainy for people who had lived in warm sunny Florida so they returned to the United States and settled in South Daytona building a home on Lantern Drive and living there ever since. Jacques and Maria were drawn to the Daytona Beach area because they remembered the enormous oak trees that lined Ridgewood Avenue. Maria?s husband died in 1983 following a cerebral hemorrhage.

Maria enjoyed traveling and revisited Switzerland several times. She also has a group of Swiss friends who meet monthly for lunch. Each December she went on a cruise in the Caribbean; and has visited Cozemel Cayman Islands and other ports of call. For many years she has been an officer in the Daytona Chapter of the American Association of Retired Persons and a member of Epiphany Catholic Church. An outstanding gardener her collection of orchids roses impatiens and amaryllis as well as other flowering plants and bushes is most colorful and shows the attention she had for detail.

In her generosity to Stetson University she set up the Maria B. Studer Scholarship Fund it is her heartfelt wish that the scholarship funds will be awarded to enable worthy students to continue their education achieve their goals an to excel in life.

Condolences may be sent via the family guestbook at www.lohmanfuneralhomes.com. Arrangements are under the careful direction of Baggett and Summers Funeral Home.