Velma Knosp, 92

Velma Grace Clampett Knosp, 92, of Mountain Home, died Wednesday, April 7, 2004, at the Elmore Medical Center Nursing Home in Mountain Home.

Graveside service were held Saturday, April 10, at Terrance Lawn in Boise. Arrangements were under the direction of Summers Funeral Homes, McMurtrey Chapel.

Velma was born June 24, 1911, in Napoonee, Neb., to Frank N. and Iva V. Clampett. She was the younger of two daughters to join the family.

She graduated from Naponee High School in 1929 and managed to survive the Depression by continuing on to Kearney State Teachers College in Kearny, Neb., for two years, earning her teaching credentials. She taught school in a one-room schoolhouse in rural South Central Nebraska for four years.

Velma then attended the School of Cosmetology in Hastings, Neb., and went on to own and operated the Naponee Beauty Shop out of her parent's home.

She married Eldin E. Knosp of Republican City, Neb., on March 30, 1935 in Red Cloud, Neb. They were married 26 years. She was married several times after that.

After surviving some of the terrific Nebraska dust storms during the 1930s, she and Eldin moved out West. They lived in Boise for six years where she worked as a beauty operator in the Cinderella Beauty Shop. They then moved on to Oregon where Velma lived most of her adult life.

She retired from the Federal Government Bureau of Land Management in 1977.

Music was a great part of her life. She loved to dance, her family noted. She played for dances during her early years and also played the organ and piano in church for many years. She had a piano and/or an organ in her home most of her life. "Her love of music lives on in her children," her family said. Velma loved to listen to the Oregon Trailblazer basketball games on the radio and crochet afghan after afghan.

She was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

She had resided for the last several years in Mountain Home to be near her daughter.

Velma is survived by: one son and two daughters along with their spouses, Delvin and Marilyn Knosp of Logan, Utah, Al and Maxine (Knosp) Rathbun of Mountain Home, and Col. Jim and Bettylou (Knosp) Wedertz of Colorado Springs, Colo.; eight grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband's sister, Violet (Clampett) Smith, and one grandson, Damon Knosp.