GARFIELD – Leta Viva Nelson, 98, died Jan. 13 at the Pawnee Valley Community Hospital, Larned. She was born Sept. 26, 1912, at Rozel, the daughter of Edgar and Hattie Steeley Van Eaton. On Oct. 29, 1932, she married Carl "Aaron" Nelson at Wichita. He died Nov. 2, 1985. A former resident on a farm between Newton and Wichita, moving to a farm in Leon in 1942, and then to a farm in Garfield in 1947, she was the Pawnee County lunch room supervisor for Ft. Larned School District 495.

Mrs. Nelson was a member of the First Christian Church and LI-AR-MU, both of Larned, and the Kansas Food Association.

Survivors include a son, Larry D. and his wife Linda, Washington, D.C.; a daughter, Barbara J. Nelson, Overland Park; a daughter-in-law, Vivian Nelson, Garfield; and two brothers, Bud VanEaton and wife Silvia, Larned, and Gerald Van Eaton and wife Mae, Oakley. She was preceded in death by a son, Ronald A.; three brothers, Glen, Ezra and William VanEaton; and eight sisters, Essie Sturm, Maude Belle Drake, Fannie "van" Healy, Eva VanEaton, Evelyn Peterson, Susan Kuehn, Marjorie VanEaton and Dolly Thomas.

Funeral will be at 10 a.m. Monday at the Beckwith Mortuary Chapel, Larned, with Pastor Dan Lundgren presiding. Burial will be in the Garfield Cemetery. Friends may call from 1-8 p.m. today and from 9 a.m. until service time Monday at the mortuary. Memorials may be sent to the Larned First Christian Church, Boy Scouts of America or River Bend Assisted Living, in care of the mortuary. Condolence may be left at www.beckwithmortuary.com.