Mary Lou Scheopner

Mary Louise (Erpelding) Scheopner was born September 6, 1940, to Henry and Cecelia (Deveney) Erpelding in Atchison, Kansas. She passed peacefully on July 10, 2025. She attended St. Benedict's and Sacred Heart Grade Schools, Mount Academy High School and Mt. St. Scholastica College. She went to work for the former Schmierer's Drug Store at 6th & Commercial and after the flood, worked at Domann Drugs and then Ball Brother's Drug. She retired from Ball Brother's Drug in 2011.

She was united in marriage to Harold James Scheopner on September 24, 1960. He survives of the home. She is also survived by two sons, Michael (Karen) of Topeka and Mark of Garden City, Kansas and a daughter, Regina (Mark) Rygaard of Hiawatha; five grandchildren; thirteen great grandchildren; and a sister, Ann Funk of Nortonville, Kansas. Her father and mother, and two brothers, Henry Jr. and Larry preceded her in death.

She and her husband hosted many students from around the world who were students at the Mt. Academy. She and Harold had the ministry of EMHC and took communion to the shut ins for a number of years and they helped with Loaves and Fishes for over 20 years. Mary Lou was a member of the same bible group for over 50 years. She was interested in bicycling and bicycled across the state of Kansas and with her husband chaperoned trips to Yellowstone and the Tetons and also bicycled in the Badlands and Black Hills and the Smoky Mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee. She at one time was president of the Mt. Academy Alumni Association, was on the executive board of the Mt. Academy, was secretary of Habitat for Humanity and was a charter member of the Atchison County Historical Society.

Mass of Christian burial will be on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, at 10:30 a.m. at St. Joseph Church in Atchison with Fr. Jeremy Heppler, OSB as celebrant. A lunch will be served following the service at the church hall. A rosary will be on Tuesday evening, at 5:30 p.m. at the Arensberg-Pruett Funeral Home with visitation to follow until 7:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be left to the St. Benedict Catholic School Endowment. Cremation care has been entrusted to the Arensberg-Pruett Funeral Home.