Vera Lena Babbel McKnight, passed away on June 10, 1998 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

She was born January 22, 1923 in Twin Falls, Idaho, to Frederick August and Lena Lamprecht Babbel. She married Kent H. McKnight on March 18, 1948 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple.After graduation from Twin Falls High School, she attended the Portland School of Art in Portland, Oregon, and continued her education at Brigham Young University. Vera received a Bachelor's Degree in Art from BYU and she was awarded the prestigious Brockbank Award. Later she studied at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, California.

Vera mastered various art media ranging from oils, watercolors, acrylics, print making, ceramics, design, graphics, illustrations on mylar to commercial artwork. Vera taught night classes at BYU in drawing and in lettering and layout. She also served as the President of the Provo Art Board. Much of her professional life was spent in the technical illustration of the fungi. After the family moved to the Washington, D.C. area, Vera's work was exhibited at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, at the Corcoran gallery, and at the National Academy of Sciences. Her paintings graced the cover of the American Family Physician magazine and received the first place award of the International Graphics society for four color separation in 1982. From an exhibit of approximately 150 paintings exhibited by the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators in the rotunda of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, one of Vera's mushroom paintings was one of the few chosen by the Smithsonian Institution for a traveling exhibition, which circulated among prominent museums throughout this nation for three years. By invitation, she has also exhibited at the 1st Annual World of Scientific Illustration exhibition in Osaka, Japan. In 1985, she received the commission for calligraphy and illustrations for invitations and programs for the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan.

She was co-author of the Peterson's Field Guide to the Mushrooms of North America and also the mushroom Flashguide. Over 1000 of her individual original watercolor paintings grace the pages of that book, along with numerous black-and-white pen and ink drawings. Her lifelong labors of illustrations for technical papers and books in very diverse subjects such as mushrooms, grasses, sedges, lizards, toads, frogs, insects, snakes, skunks and plant diseases testify of her exceptional versatility, leading to an article that celebrated her extraordinary skills in National Wildlife. Some of her works were donated to the BYU M.L. Bean Life Sciences Museum in 1997, and have been on exhibit there.

She worked for many years in Cub Scouting and held numerous positions in her Church. She always felt that her family was her most precious gift from God and spent countless hours helping her children and their families. She was patient, kind, loving, devoted to her husband, her family and her God.

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She is survived by her husband, Kent H. McKnight, of Silver Reef, UT; four children: Jeffry B. (wife, Maureen) McKnight, of Richmond, TX; Karl B. (wife, Joan) McKnight, of Canton, NY; Larry B. (wife, Cathy) McKnight, of Las Vegas, NV; and Kathleen (husband, Todd) Williams, of Englewood, CO; 18 grandchildren; three brothers: Roy (wife, Rhoda) Babbel, of Twin Falls, ID; Fred (wife, June) Babbel, of Orem, UT; Byron (wife, Ivie) Babbel, of Manti, UT; three sisters: Olea (husband, Tony) Woolf, of Auburn, CA; Pearl (husband, Wendell) Schenk, of Idaho Falls, ID; and Elaine (husband, Wilson) Harper, of Moreland, ID. She was preceded in death by a son, Mark B. McKnight.

Funeral service will be held on Friday June 19, 1998 at 10 a.m. in the Leeds LDS Chapel, 75 North Main. Interment will be in the Leeds Cemetery under the direction of Spilsbury and Beard Mortuary, 110 S. Bluff, St. George, UT

801-673-2454

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