Well, thank you all for your suggestions.
Here's how far I've got, and I'm open for further enhancements.

1...I found this nice Ubuntu How-To which helps a lot:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=684495

2...I did what it says, and put, as root, this in my /etc/rc.local:
sudo dhclient -r eth1
sudo ifconfig eth1 up
sudo iwconfig eth1 essid "alpha=num essid"
sudo iwconfig eth1 key "10 char hex key"
#sudo iwconfig eth1 key open # didn't need this apparently
sudo iwconfig eth1 mode Managed
sudo dhclient eth1

3...I revised my LiveUSB DEFAULT, as root, to read:
DEFAULT knoppix nonetworkmanager edd=off fromhd=/dev/sdb1
That's the 1st line in /Desktop/KNOPPIX/boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg

4...Rebooted.‎

5...Did less /var/log/syslog.
Found that start-of-boot to wi-fi on-line now takes 58 seconds.

Beat that.