Carmen Melnik; Retired Registered Nurse

Carmen Melnik, a retired registered nurse who lived in the San Fernando Valley for 20 years, has died in Granada Hills. She was 81.

Mrs. Melnik died Tuesday of cancer, said her son, Carl Melnik. She had also suffered from arthritis since she was 19.

Born Carmen Bakken on Nov. 6, 1908, in Leeds, N.D., she was raised on a Montana farm. She was graduated in 1931 as a registered nurse from the Deaconess Hospital in Billings, Mont., and in the mid-1930s moved to Los Angeles where she worked for two doctors in southwest Los Angeles. In the late 1930s, she married Harry Melnik, who died in 1976.

Upon her retirement in 1970, she moved to Granada Hills, and seven years later moved into the North Hills Retirement Hotel in Northridge. She lived the past two years in a Granada Hills convalescent hospital.

Mrs. Melnik was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Granada Hills and participated in a women’s group at the church.

She is survived by her sons, Carl Melnik of Granada Hills and Glen Melnik of Alameda; brother Melvin Bakken of Billings, Mont.; and three grandchildren.

Visitation is planned from 5 to 9 p.m. today at Utter McKinley Mortuary, 11071 Columbus Ave., Mission Hills, which is handling the arrangements. A funeral is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday at the First Presbyterian Church of Granada Hills at 10400 Zelzah Ave., with burial to follow at Oakwood Memorial Park in Chatsworth. Donations can be made in Mrs. Melnik’s name to the American Cancer Society, San Fernando Valley unit, or the Arthritis Foundation, San Fernando Valley branch.