Internment Onawa Cemetery Onawa, Iowa
Visitation March 25 10:00 AM Campbell-Aman Funeral Home Blair, Nebraska

Hope Nielsen, 90, passed away March 22, 2017, at Crowell Home. Memorial gathering will be held Saturday, March 25, 2017, at 10:00 AM at Campbell Aman Funeral Home. Graveside Service will be held in the Onawa Cemetery in Onawa, Iowa Monday March 27, 2017 at 2:00PM.

Hope was preceded in death by her parents Anton and Sigrid Hansen; husband Howard Nielsen; an infant sister Ruth; brothers Juhl, Stanley, and Paul; sisters-in-law Margaret and Norma; brother-in-law Robert Kaveney; nephew Rodney Hansen; niece Rhonda Hansen Cline; daughter-in-law Christi Nielsen.

Hope is survived by her daughter Lori Nielsen of Blair, Nebraska; son Kim Nielsen and grandson Andrew Nielsen of Blair, Nebraska; son Lance Nielsen of Omaha, Nebraska; sister Marylou Kaveney of Novato, California; sisters-in-law Bernadine Hansen of Moorhead, Iowa and Lorayne Hansen of San Rafael, California; and nieces and nephews.

Hope Marie was born on January 5, 1927, to Anton and Sigrid Hansen in Moorhead, Iowa. Hope grew up in Moorhead and graduated from high school in 1944. She attended Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa from 1944 to 1946 and earned a certificate to teach elementary school. Hope taught fourth grade in Castana, Iowa where she met Howard Nielsen. She taught in Manning, Iowa from 1947-1948 and she taught fourth grade in Onawa, Iowa starting in 1948. She married Howard in Moorhead on July 31, 1949, and they lived in Onawa. Hope continued to teach in Onawa until 1953, and then she taught fourth and fifth grades in Blencoe from 1953-1954. Hope quit teaching to start a family and become a full-time mother and homemaker. In late 1959, the family of five moved to a small farm just south of Onawa.

Hope assisted with her daughter's 4-H club and with her sons' Cub Scouts. She was a member of the First Christian Church in Onawa and was involved with one of the woman's circles. She was also a member of the American Legion Auxiliary. She helped start the Burgess Auxiliary Consignment shop, Act II, and volunteered there for many years. Hope took art lessons and painted pictures, and she sewed quilts and crocheted afghans and slippers. Hope and Howard loved to travel, and their family enjoyed many summer trips to Grand Lake, Colorado. Later Hope and Howard also traveled throughout the United States and overseas.

After Howard died in 2000, Hope moved into Onawa in the fall of 2002. In 2010 she moved into an assisted living apartment at Elmwood Care Center, and in 2011 she moved to Crowell Memorial Home in Blair, Nebraska.

Hope's family suggest that memorials be made to the Onawa (Iowa) Public Library because Hope was an avid reader and made sure her children were too.