Frances Elaine Phelps

Frances Elaine Phelps, born Frances Elaine Moen, was a retired surgical and postpartum nurse who spent her career caring for patients in Minnesota before settling in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. She died on October 20, 2026, at the age of 82, after living with lung cancer.

She was born on July 16, 1944, to Otto Edvin Moen and Iona June Lund, and was raised on a farm outside Clearbrook, Minnesota, alongside seven siblings. By her family's account, farm work did not suit her, and she chose nursing instead, a decision that shaped the rest of her working life.

Her nursing career began in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, where she worked as a surgical nurse. She later moved into postpartum care, eventually retiring from Altru Hospital, where she helped new mothers and their babies in the days after birth. According to her obituary, she worked flexible hours there and would often check in on her days off to see if the unit needed extra help, bringing homemade treats such as warm Anadama bread for colleagues and patients.

Outside of her career, Phelps was an enthusiastic traveler who visited Greece, Turkey, Israel, Crete, England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Belgium, Panama, Mexico, Aruba, Costa Rica, and nearly all fifty U.S. states and the Canadian provinces, according to her obituary. In earlier years she sewed much of her own clothing, partly out of practicality and partly as something to occupy her time while on call for surgery. In her later years she took up painting, working in watercolors to depict landscapes and animals.

Frances Elaine Phelps died on October 20, 2026. Her death was made public through an obituary published by Harrigan Parkside Funeral Home and Crematory of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, which is handling arrangements for the family. She was not a public figure in the conventional sense, and her life was marked less by fame than by decades of steady, personal care for patients and a lifelong curiosity about the world beyond the farm where she grew up.