Viola Fern Benzel

Viola Fern Benzel, 93, passed away peacefully at home on August 29, 2025. Born on August 14,1932, in Rapid City, South Dakota to Ivan and Luvon (Biley) Christy. She was the first of four children.

Her brother Olin was born on August 12, 1933, and Viola and Olin were very close. They would ride horses for hours together when living with their grandparents in Hill City South Dakota and shared a once in a lifetime experience of watching the men from the CCC camps carve the heads of Mount Rushmore.

Her first memories of contact with Jehovah’s Witnesses, was of Brother Orville Wright and his wife Katherine coming to study with her mother Luvon at the house. Viola remembered sitting under the table playing with the sisters’ shoes. Her mother did not take to the truth immediately and would actually leave the house to avoid them.

As a child growing up during the Depression the family moved around a lot while her father was looking for work. They lived in Los Alamitos California briefly before moving back to Cheyenne Wyoming.

Viola assisted a commercial baker, Delbert Esterbrook, at the Wigwam Bakery in Cheyenne and as a result she learned many baking skills that she put into practice at home. As a result, the family regularly enjoyed homemade cinnamon rolls, dinner rolls, German dishes such as Bierock’s (cabbage burgers) and chicken and dumplings and many more.

Delbert and Louise Esterbrook witnessed to Viola and assisted her in learning more about Jehovah. She enjoyed what she learned and, in her teens, while living in Cheyenne, Wyoming, she would walk to the Kingdom Hall on her own.

She met Richard A. Lucas when he made a delivery to their home in Cheyenne, and he asked Viola out on a date, and she told him that she wouldn’t date a soldier as he was in the Air Force. So sometime later after getting out of military service he returned and said I am no longer a soldier and now you have to go out with me. Viola did and they were married on March 7,1952 in a double wedding with her brother Olin and his first wife and for this union she had two children, Wayne and Carol.

They were baptized together as Jehovah’s Witnesses on December 28, 1952, in Loveland Colorado. She and Richard would take hunting expositions into the hills of Wyoming to hunt game. She was the sharpshooter of the two; she would shoot the animal, field dress it and assisted in packing the animal out.

Richard worked as a Civil Service instructor teaching jet engine repair to Air Force Personnel. As a result, they moved around a lot living in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, and in New Jersey.

They attended the Divine Will International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses at Yankee Stadium and Polo Grounds in New York City, July 27 – August 3, 1958.

The family moved to Champaign Illinois later that year in 1958 due to Richard’s Civil Service job and sadly on December 20, 1958, her husband Richard passed way in an automobile accident.

Following Richard’s death Viola moved back to Cheyenne Wyoming with her kids to be closer to family. When attending a Circuit Assembly in Scottsbluff Nebraska in 1959 she went up to a territory table to get some territory to work in the ministry. The brother who was working at the territory desk named Harvey Benzel saw her coming up to the table to get a territory and jokingly said if you sign for that territory you are agreeing to marry me. She was not very impressed with him at the time.

Sometime later a brother David Gustafson in Cheyenne Wyoming invited seven single sisters to his home for a picnic along with Harvey from Scottsbluff as he needed to get these single sisters married off. Harvey and Viola met again this time under different circumstances and they began to date and were married on October 13, 1960, in Scottsbluff. To this union, their daughter Penny was born.

In 1963 Harvey and Viola relocated to Chadron Nebraska to serve where the need was great. Harvey served as a regular pioneer and the Congregation Servant. Due to limited brothers within the congregation, Viola assisted Harvey in the capacity of Service Overseer and Assistant Congregation Servant. In 1964 they moved back to Scottsbluff.

Harvey and Viola had a cleaning business so that their secular work could be scheduled around the ministry. In 1976 the cleaning business faded out to start a pest control company which everyone in the family was very much involved in. Harvey and Viola continued to grow the business until the passing of Harvey in 2000 when her son Wayne took over the business, Benzel Pest Control.

In the mid 1980’s the family would occasionally work unassigned territory in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and traveled to Bridgeport Nebraska to assist the Congregation there for a couple years.

She loved flowers and house plants. She even had a flower garden at the local Zoo in Scottsbluff that she and Penny would work on every Saturday afternoon enjoying not only the flowers but also watching and laughing at the monkeys that was right next to them.

Harvey passed away on October 30, 2000, in Scottsbluff after a long illness. Following his death Viola sold their home and bought a mobile home in Cheyenne Wyoming where she lived for a number of years. Her Pekinese dog Taffy moved with her to Cheyenne and later to Denver.

Due to health issues, she had to leave Cheyenne and moved in with her daughter Penny and her husband Phillip to Aurora Colorado in 2009. She lived there until the family decided to relocate to Amarillo TX in 2023 so that she could be closer to her daughter Carol and her family to assist in her care.

As a mother of three and grandmother of five and great grandmother of nine, Viola instilled her strong values and religious beliefs in her family. She led by example, being in attendance at her meetings and assemblies was always top priority and during Covid19 she attended regularly with her family on Zoom. Volunteering her time whenever she could to share in the field ministry sharing scriptures and studying the Bible with people about a better future for mankind to come. As one of Jehovah’s Witnesses she devoted her life to helping others. Remaining faithful to Jehovah in every way was her main concern throughout her entire life, clear to the very end.

She was proceeded in death by her parents, Ivan and Luvon Christy, younger brother Olin Christy Sr., husbands Richard A. Lucas and Harvey L. Benzel. She is survived by her sister, Marlene (James) Fleet of Cheyenne Wyoming, a brother, Larry Christy of Cheyenne Wyoming, a Sister-in-Law, Dorothy Christy of Cheyenne Wyoming, and her children, Wayne (Sharon) Lucas of Scottsbluff NE, Carol (Rocky) Zogg Sr. of Amarillo, TX and Penny (Phillip) Innes of Amarillo, TX. Grandchildren: Amy Davis of Greeley CO, Lisa (James) Swain of Bagley MN, Candice Lucas (James Levi) of Granite City, IL, Travis (Courtney) Lucas of Scottsbluff NE, and Rocky (Naomi) Zogg Jr. of Amarillo, TX; Great Children: Dominic Lucas, Wyatt (America) Lucas, Wesley Lucas, Erin Gillespie, Jackson Gillespie, Ian Gillespie, Jordan Davis, Bridger Davis and Eloisa Zogg, as well as numerous nieces, nephews, cousins and especially Viola’s beloved kitty, Teddy.

Viola will be greatly missed by all who loved her but especially her family. Losing her has left an empty space in our hearts but we all look forward to welcoming her back into that New World to come.

The memorial service will be live streamed via Zoom with the following access information:

Meeting ID: 856 7239 4222

Passcode: 331914