Helen Virginia Sutphen

Helen Virginia (Johnson) Sutphen, daughter of OLee and Viola Johnson, was born February 21, 1921 at Centerville, Iowa and died Thursday, November 30, 2011 at Red Oak, Iowa at the age of 90 years.
She grew up in Moline, Illinois. After graduation from high school in 1938, she entered nurses training at Moline Public Hospital and graduated as an RN. She worked as an office and industrial factory nurse before entering the Army Nurse Corp. in 1943. She served as a nurse anesthetist at Wakeman Hospital, Camp Atterbury, Indiana until her honorable discharge shortly before the end of WWII.
Helen married Paul Sutphen in April, 1942, and after both Helen and Paul were discharged from the Army at the end of the war, they moved to Villisca, Iowa. They were blessed with two children: Raymond Lee Sutphen and Lynda J. Hohnbaum.
Helen and Paul operated the Sutphen Funeral Home for many years and Helen was also the Villisca school nurse for 18 years. She served many years on the Montgomery County Public Health Advisory Board, Villisca Housing Board, helped with the local Blood Mobile drives and was a Red Cross nurse for over 60 years.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Paul Sutphen: son, Raymond Sutphen; granddaughter, Stephanie Means; brothers: James, Marvin and Charles Johnson; and her parents.
She is survived by her daughter, Lynda Hohnbaum and son-in-law Don of West Des Moines, Iowa; cousin, Beatrice Sherry of Round Rock, Texas; sister-in-law, Margaret Johnson of Moline, Illinois; brother-in-law, Robert Sutphen of Naches, Washington and nieces and nephews.