Velma Jacobs

Velma Jacobs, 97 of Sidney and a longtime Chappell resident, died early Monday evening, Oct. 27, 2014, one day short of her 98th birthday, at the Golden Living Center in Sidney.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:30 a.m., Mon., Nov. 3, 2014 in the St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Chappell with Father Antony Thekkekara officiating. A Rosary service will be held at 7 p.m. on Sunday at the church. Burial will be in the Chappell Cemetery.

Memorials have been established to St. Joseph's Catholic Church or the Chappell Library.

Visitation will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Holechek Funeral Home in Sidney for friends and family in Sidney. The casket will be at the church in Chappell from 4 p.m. until the Rosary service at 7 p.m. on Sunday.

You can view the online obituary and share condolences with the family at http://www.holechekfuneralhomes.com

Velma Maxine Jacobs, the daughter of James H. and Hilda (Johnson) Campbell was born Oct. 28, 1916 in a farm house near Gresham, Nebraska. Velma and her family moved west to Lodgepole in 1919. They and several other families placed their household belongings, animals and a hired man in train cars and followed the train in Model T's to their new home. They established the Goodview Community north of Lodgepole and she attended school there and later returned to teach. She attended Kearney Normal School and was pulled as a sophomore to go teach for a man who had joined the military during WW II. Her agreement with the college president was to return during the summers to finish her degree, which she completed in 1964.

On Feb. 8, 1946 she was united in marriage to James Pete Jacobs at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Chappell. Velma taught at several country schools in the area as well as at Lodgepole and Chappell. While teaching she had the unique distinction of coaching boy's high school basketball.

Velma loved playing cards, bowling, reading and gambling at Prairie Winds. Bad health took her to the nursing home in 2007. In Sidney she would fill the halls with Christmas carols every day and, as always the teacher, provide spelling and grammar corrections. She was always the devoted teacher and will be missed by all those who loved her.

She was a member of St. Joseph's Catholic Church, the Altar Society, the Nebraska Teacher's Association, the Deuel County Voting Board, a Chappell Bowling League and was a Girl Scouts of America leader.

Survivors include two daughters: Janice and husband Steve Anderson of Omaha and Jo Anne and husband Duane Talich of Sidney; 3 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, one brother Wayne Campbell and one sister Phyllis Chill.

Holechek Funeral Home and Cremations in Chappell is serving the Jacobs family.