Viola Bartels, 89, of Grand Island, died Friday, Aug. 26, 2016, at the Nebraska Veterans Home in Grand Island.

Services will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at Christ Lutheran Church in St. Paul. The Rev. Thomas Clark will officiate. Interment will be in Elmwood Cemetery in St. Paul. Jacobsen-Greenway Funeral Home in St. Paul is in charge of arrangements.

Mrs. Bartels was born April 19, 1927, in Scotland, S.D. to George and Alvina (Schmidt) Bender.

Viola was raised in Scotland and attended Scotland schools where she graduated in 1945.

She was united in marriage to Bernard J. Bartels on April 20, 1947. She spent most of her 68 years of marriage in Nebraska. This union was blessed with five sons, Stephen, James, Dwight, Timothy and Brian.

Viola spent her time being a homemaker and raising her family.

During her lifetime, they lived in Tobias, Neb.; Danbury, Iowa; Bradshaw, Neb.; and Wagner, S.D.; because of her husband’s employment. After Bernard’s retirement, the couple lived in Albion and St. Paul.

The couple moved to the Nebraska Veterans Home in Grand Island on March 29, 2011.

She was a member of Christ Lutheran Church in St. Paul.

Survivors include five sons and three daughters-in-law, Stephen and Terry Bartels of Greeley, Colo., James and Sharleen Bartels of St. Paul, Dwight Bartels of Manhattan, Kan., Timothy Bartels of Champion and Brian and Stacy Bartels of Jewell, Iowa; eight grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; three stepgrandchildren; two brothers and sisters-in-law, Robert and Madelyn Bender of Holt, Fla. and Raymond and Yvonne Bender of Spearfish, S.D.; and two sisters and brothers-in-law, Donna and Paul Phillips of Yankton, S.D. and Judith and Willard Bartels of Tobias.

She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Bernard on Nov. 18, 2015; a sister, Shirley Bender and brother, Wayne Bender, who both died in infancy; and a great-granddaughter.