MINDEN — Helen Jean Knapp, 93, passed away Sunday, June 18, 2017, at Bethany Home in Minden.

Memorial service will be 11 a.m. Thursday at Messiah Lutheran Church in Grand Island, with Pastor Bill Schroeder officiating. Burial will be prior to the service at 10 a.m. at Westlawn Memorial Park Cemetery. Apfel Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.

Helen was born on Jan. 10, 1924, to Vernon and Margaret (Schmitt) Eychner in Alma. She spent her childhood in Grand Island, graduating from Grand Island Senior High School in 1942. She graduated from St. Francis School of Nursing, and worked as a nurse her entire adult life. During World War II, Helen was in the Cadet Nurse Corps, stationed in Washington, D.C.

She married Lyle Knapp in 1947, and they lived and farmed in the North Star, Palmer and Fullerton area, and Julesburg and Longmont in Colorado. They moved to Grand Island in 1976. Helen served as director of nursing at Fullerton Memorial Hospital, and in the cardiac intensive care unit of the Nebraska Veterans Affairs Hospital in Grand Island, as well as working in hospitals in other towns where they lived. Lyle passed away in 2006. Helen moved to Minden in 2010, and became a resident of Bethany Home there in 2012.

Helen was a compassionate and hard-working nurse, an accomplished musician and a great friend. She will be remembered for her wit and willingness to lend a helping hand.


Left to mourn her passing include her children, Howard (Pat) Knapp of North Platte, Margaret (Bill) Scheideler of Lincoln, Mary Jo (LaMoine) Smith of Minden; nine grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren; a brother, George (Judy) Eychner of Kerrville, Texas; sisters and brothers-in-law, Betty D’Arcy of Orange, Calif., Georgia (Bob) Petersen of St. Paul, and Shirley (Carl) Knapp of Clayton, N.C.

She was preceded in death by her parents and husband; a sister, Mary (Bob) Deutschman; and sisters and brothers-in-law, Augie (Evelyn) Evers, John D’Arcy and Laura (Jim) Short.