Blanche Anna Melvin

Blanche Anna (Hoffmann) Melvin of Bridgeport, Nebraska passed away on June 4th, 2026, at the age of 94. She was the 3rd child of Henry C and Blanche (Wesley) Hoffmann, born July 21, 1931, in Cook County, Illinois (Chicago). The family moved to McCook, Nebraska briefly before settling in Brush, Colorado, where Blanche graduated from high school.

When she was growing up, Blanche helped her mother in the family garden, preserved vegetables, and helped care for her younger siblings. As a teenager, she worked as a nurse’s aide and discovered a lifelong love of nursing. After high school, she attended and graduated from the Presbyterian School of Nursing in Denver in 1956.

In Denver, she met Dale Melvin who had recently left the US Air Force. They were married in 1957 in Sterling, Colorado and moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, so that Dale could attend the University of Nebraska. While there, she worked as a community health nurse before welcoming their first two children, Laura and Scott. In 1959, they moved to Bridgeport where they took over the Melvin family farm and Dale taught at Bridgeport Public School. Their son Kevin was born the following year and was followed several years later by their youngest daughter Joyce.

Blanche focused on long term nursing care in her career, working for the Bridgeport Nursing Home for several years and at the Federal VA Hospital in Hot Springs, South Dakota beginning in the 1980s. While working in South Dakota, she and her family traveled throughout the Black Hills and the surrounding area. After retiring, she worked temporarily for the Morrill County Hospital and later for the Census Bureau. She really enjoyed her job of driving through the panhandle verifying the addresses of occupied farms.

Throughout her life, Blanche enjoyed caring for others, cooking, sewing, needle crafts, and traveling. She collected cookbooks and shared them with her family members. She particularly loved community cookbooks and owned several from around the country. When her children were growing up, she sewed many of their clothes and refurbished an antique treadle Singer sewing machine which she used for many years. She created several quilts and often purchased fabric on her trips to use in creations when she returned home. She learned how to knit and crochet at an early age from her mother and created several items over the years, including sweaters and several afghans. She was a voracious reader of fiction and was a frequent visitor to the local library. She and Dale traveled when they could, often visiting family across the country and going on group trips with extended family. Her favorite destinations included the Devils Tower, Black Hills, New Mexico, and Alaska.