Ethelyn W. Knoernschild

Ethelyn Tozier Knoernschild, 98, of Omaha, formerly of Sioux City, passed away Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2014, after a brief stay at a care center in Omaha.
Services will be 10 a.m. Monday at Calvary Lutheran Church in Sioux City. Burial will be in Logan Park Cemetery. Visitation will be 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Larkin Chapel, Christy-Smith Funeral Home.
Ethelyn was born on a farm in Kingsley, Iowa, on March 22, 1916, to parents Fred and Adelaide (Nichols) Utecht. At the age of 4, the family moved to the Leeds area of Sioux City. She attended Hawthorne and Woodrow Wilson schools and graduated from the Castle on the Hill (Central High School) in 1934.
That same year she married Gene Tozier. He died in 1983. She married Ken Knoernschild in 1990. He passed away in 1992. Ethelyn gave music lessons in her home for several years and then at the former United Teachers of Music in Morningside. She then took classes and became a CNA at Marian Hospital and later at Indian Hills Care Center (now Touchstone Living Center). She also attended Western Iowa Tech Community College and became an activity coordinator at the former Indian Hills Care Center until her retirement.
She was a longtime member of Calvary Lutheran Church and was a member of the choir, the Women’s League, Dorcus Circle and the Lutheran Service Auxiliary. She also taught Sunday school and Bible school. Ethelyn was a member of the Leeds Golden Age Club. She was a member of the former Hawthorne School PTA and the Leeds Community Club. She belonged to the Northwest Council of Activity Coordinators and the Iowa Health Care Association, the Amateur Organ Club, was a lifetime member of the Siouxland Senior Center, where she was a member of the chorus, the Drama Club, the Kanduettes, and assisted with advertising sales. She moved to Omaha in 2008 and was an active member of Lutheran Church of the Master.
She is survived by a daughter, Debra, and her husband, Larry Mesward, of Omaha; a grandson, Greg Slotsky of Grenada, Miss.; a granddaughter, Tara Mesward and her husband, Ian Tyler, of Omaha; two nieces, Marlene Edsen of Ankeny, Iowa, and Janet Conyers of Redfield, S.D.; and a nephew, David Burger of Sioux City.
Ethelyn was preceded in death by a son, Fred Tozier; her parents, Fred and Adelaide Utecht; a brother, Fred Utecht; and a grandniece, Markayla Conyers.