Of ranking importance on the calendar of events for the coming week is the silver wedding anniversary of the Rev. and Mrs. Walter A. Reiser who were married just a few months after the Rev. Mr. Reiser came to Augusta to begin his long and continuous service as pastor of the Lutheran church on Greene St. Although the couple want to spend the anniversary of their twenty-fifth wedding day quietly there are hundreds of Augustans in addition to members of the Rev. Mr. Reiser’s congregation who would take pleasure in making the day festive for them. Because the Rev. Mr. Reiser has recently been ill and also because the three sons of the family could not be present on the anniversary it was decided that there would be no formal celebration.

Few Augusta couples looking back over twenty-five years of married life could find more things to be happy about than the Rev. and Mrs. Reiser. Their four children, Mary Catherine, Lieutenant Walter A. Reiser Jr., instructor in the Infantry School at Fort Benning, John Shealy Reiser, who is in the Navy’s V-12 program at Georgia Tech, and William Edward Reiser, seaman first class at Great Lakes Naval Training Station, all made outstanding records in the class rooms and in campus activities at high school and college, and each of the Reiser sons received the Sherman Sabre, annual award to the outstanding graduate of the Richmond Academy.

Soon after coming to Augusta the Rev. Mr. Reiser was recognized as a civic leader as well as a minister. In club and church work and in her own wide circle of friends Mrs. Reiser has been equally helpful and popular.

In World War I the Rev. Mr. Reiser held a lieutenant’s commission in the Coast Artillery and served as a chaplain overseas. After receiving his discharge he served as pastor of the Lutheran church at Summerville, S. C., for a short while before coming to Augusta.

Before her marriage Mrs. Reiser was Miss Cora Edna Shealy of Springfield, Ga. She and the Rev. Mr. Reiser were married July 10, 1919, in the Holy Trinity Church at Springfield. Her father, the late Rev. T. W. Shealy, pastor of the church, performed the ceremony.

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Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, GA), 7 Jan 1968, p. 11.

Mrs. Reiser dies following short illness

Funeral services for Mrs. Cora Shealey Reiser, of 315 Russell St., who died at 4 p.m. Saturday following a brief illness, will be held at 4 p.m. today at the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection.

The Rev. David Paul Nelson will officiate, assisted by the Rev. John H. Ohsiek Jr. Burial will be in the Westover Memorial Park Cemetery.

The widow of the Rev. Walter Allen Reiser, she was a member of the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection, the Augusta Garden Club, the Weitner Bible Class, which she taught, a life member of the Y.W.C.A., the Best Years Club of the Y.W.C.A., and active in P-T.A. work.

Survivors include three sons, Walter A. Reiser Jr., Cambridge, Mass.; John Shealey Reiser, Jacksonville, Fla.; and William Edward Reiser, Birmingham, Ala.; daughter, Mrs. Carl H. Stelling Jr., North Augusta, S.C.; and 12 grandchildren.

Pallbearers will be members of the council of the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection.

Friends may call at the church from 3 p.m. today until the hour of the service.

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Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, GA), 11 Jan 1968, p. 4.

Letters to the editor
Notes influence of Reisers

Editor, The Chronicle:
The passing of Mrs. Cora Shealey Reiser marks the closing chapter in the great volume of service and contribution to the people of Augusta by Mrs. Reiser and her husband, the late Rev. Dr. Walter A. Reiser.

The void that now exists will be felt by the countless lives that have been touched by this dedicated Christian couple. Although Pastor Reiser preceded his wife in death by nearly 20 years, his memory and service live on in the lives and hearts of many in Augusta. The vacancy left by Mrs. Reiser’s death last Saturday has not been fully realized nor will it be for some time. Truly Augusta is the poorer for her passing but yet the richer for her having been among us. In every way the lives of this couple radiated the deep Christian faith that motivated them to selfless service and concern.

Although I have been in Augusta only two months, I can honestly say that I have seen the indelible mark that the Reisers have made upon this great city and the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection. Therefore, I feel it is fitting that I write this letter of tribute to the memory of the Reisers as one public expression of gratitude for the blessing of having had them in our midst.

The Rev. David Paul Nelson
Pastor, The Lutheran Church of the Resurrection