Longtime insurance agent Schneider dies

Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2003 | 8:42 a.m.

Charley Schneider spent much of his adult life looking after his auto, home and life insurance customers' needs. The last thing he wanted was for his golf buddies and other friends to worry about him when he was ill.

When the other members of his foursome at Black Mountain Country Club got a little too concerned with how cancer was threatening a loss of vision in one eye, Schneider, a longtime prankster, decided to play a little joke.

"He brought a glass eye with him and, during a putt, dropped it on the green and it started rolling toward the hole," daughter Stevie Tegano said, noting that after the initial shock, the joke broke a lot of tension and put his friends at ease.

Charley R. Schneider Jr., who helped lead Basic High School to state titles in baseball in 1955 and '56 and then carved out a 36-year career as a Southern Nevada insurance agent, died Sunday of cancer at his Las Vegas home. He was 65.

A rosary will be said at 6 p.m. today at Palm Mortuary, 800 S. Boulder Highway, Henderson. Services will be 11 a.m. Thursday in St. Peter's Catholic Church, 204 S. Boulder Highway, Henderson, followed by burial in Palm Memorial Park in Henderson.

A Southern Nevada resident for 54 years, Schneider was raised in Boulder City and Henderson and lived in North Las Vegas before taking up residency for more than 30 years in Las Vegas.

He was an insurance agent first for New York Life in the mid-1960s and for many years for Farmers Insurance until his retirement in 2001.

"Charley always took the time to know the families he insured," said longtime friend and customer Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., a classmate of Schneider's at Basic.

"He always seemed to have pleasant things to say -- a happy-go-lucky guy. There are a lot of people in Las Vegas who will tell you Charley was their best friend because a lot of people wanted to be his best friend."

Born May 2, 1938, in San Antonio, he was the oldest of two children of Charley R. Schneider Sr., a career Air Force master sergeant, and the former Florene Coyne, a buyer for Reynolds Electrical Engineering Co.

When Charley Jr. was 11, his father was transferred to Nellis Air Force Base and the family initially settled in Boulder City.

Schneider married his high school sweetheart, Maggie Sendlein, who was homecoming queen his junior year. Maggie Schneider, his wife of 45 years, survives him.

Schneider was a member of the Jaycees, Toastmasters, 20/20 Club, the United Farmers Agents and the Black Mountain Golf and Country Club.

In addition to his wife, daughter and mother Florene Wilhelm, all of Las Vegas, Schneider is survived by a sister, Carolyn Henze; and three grandsons, Jimbo, John and Charley Tegano, all of Las Vegas.

The family suggests donations to the American Cancer Society, 1325 E. Harmon Ave., Las Vegas, NV 89119.