Maria Pruett

Maria Margit Pruett, known to friends as Margit, died peacefully Saturday, April 23, 2005, at Cox South, with her family at her side. She was eighty years old.

Born Maria Margit Rozalia Suzanna Szijarto on January 1, 1925, in Hungary, Margit spent her childhood between the city of Budapest and the town of Szeged, where her family raised horses. When the German Army came into Hungary near the end of World War II, Margit's father, who was a commanding officer in the Hungarian Army, refused to take an oath of allegiance to Germany. In response to this, the family was split by the Germans and sent to Nazi labor camps. Margit was sent to the camp of Mauthausen in Austria. There, she was forced to work twelve to thirteen hours a day, cleaning the streets of the camp, and eating only once a day a meal of blue cabbage and horsemeat. She would later say that during her time at Mauthausen she prayed to the Virgin Mary every day to protect her. Margit never again saw her mother, father, sisters, or brothers.

After the war, she was taken in by a loving family in the city of Linz, Austria. In Linz, she met her future husband, Loyal David Pruett, from Dogwood, Mo., who was stationed there following the war. Margit and David were married on February 27, 1952, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She was a devoted wife, traveling with David around the world and throughout the United States as he pursued his career in the United States Army. Together, they had two children, Susan Margit and John David. When David retired from the Army in 1966, he and Margit moved to Springfield to be closer to David's family.

Margit loved cooking food for her friends and family. It was a rare occasion when a visitor would drop by and she would not sit him or her down at her table. She also loved tending to her roses in her garden and going fishing with her husband. She and David made many friends selling vegetables out of their garden each summer. She was an active member of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church and loved her parish family with all her heart. She was also an active member of St. Jude's Guild. Back when she had the energy, she loved volunteering at The Kitchen. She loved her grandchildren more than anything else in the world and would brag about them to total strangers.

She is preceded in death by her father, Ferenc, her mother, Terzia, her sisters, Terzia and Ilonka, and her brothers, Ferenc and Zoltan. We rejoice, in that she is finally reunited with the family she lost so long ago.

She is survived by her husband, Loyal David Pruett; her daughter, Susan Margit Jacobs; and her son, John David Pruett. She is also survived by her grandchildren, Zachary David Jacobs, Demetra Larrick Jacobs, Nicholas Alexander Jacobs, and Monroe Elizabeth Pruett. She loved her family so much and was so proud of each and every one of them. We know that she will always be looking down on us, guiding us, sometimes yelling at us to shape up, but mostly smiling and laughing as we celebrate her life and live our lives using the wisdom, love, and conviction that she bestowed on us.

Funeral Mass will be at 10:30 a.m., Wednesday, April 27, 2005 in St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church, 2200 W. Republic Rd., with Fr. Jim Unterreiner, celebrant. Burial will be in Missouri Veterans Cemetery under the care of Herman H. Lohmeyer Funeral Home, 500 E. Walnut.

Prayer services will be at 7:00 p.m. today (Tuesday) in the church.