Phyllis Jean (Kapp) Lemen

Mar 17, 1916 - Jul 13, 1961

Phyllis Jean Kapp was born in Vandalia, Cass County, Michigan. A year later her father died. She was raised in South Bend, Indiana, and graduated from Central High School in South Bend. She attended Northwestern University and the Evanston School of Nursing in Evanston, Illinois. During World War II she served in the Army Nurse Corps and held the rank of Lieutenant. She was an evacuation nurse with the Fourth Ferrying Group located in Memphis, Tennessee.

It was while she was stationed there that she met Lt. James Lynn Lemen, Jr. ("Lieut. Phyllis Kapp Wed in South Bend," The Commercial Appeal [Memphis, TN], 3 May 1945.) They were married on 28 April 1945. ("Army Nurse Marries Pilot," South Bend Tribune [South Bend, Indiana], 28 April 1945, pp. 7, 21.) They lived principally in Arkansas and neighboring states.

On 8 Dec 1960 in Pulaski County, Arkansas, James and Phyllis (Kapp) Lemen were divorced. (Arkansas Department of Vital Records; Little Rock, Arkansas; Divorces; Year: 1960; Film Number: 5. Ancestry.com. Arkansas, Divorces, 1923-1969 [database on-line].) At the time of the divorce, Phyllis had breast cancer for over three years.

After their separation, she returned to Indiana. She spent the last two months of her life at a Veterans Administration hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where she died on 13 July 1961. (Indiana Death Certificates, 1899-2011.) Ironically, her husband died of a sudden subdural hematoma on 11 February 1961, two months after their divorce and five months before her wife's death. Phyllis was buried in Elkhart, Indiana, with her stepfather and her mother.

The three share a common gravestone.

Sources: Ancestry.com and FindAGrave.com

04/25/2026 EJS

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/117156947/phyllis_jean-lemen