Duane Charles Knutson
Duane Charles Knutson was born at the family home January 12, 1930, in Warren, Marshall County, Minnesota. He passed away peacefully at the Sanford Neilson Place on August 1st, 2020 at 90 years of age.
Duane joined the United States Navy in 1951, served four years on the USS Chelan County LST-542, tank landing ship, as a Gunners Mate 3 and was a member of the American Legion of Warren. Duane married Lila Peterson on October 20, 1956. Through his working life he was a logger for 30 years and enjoyed working in the woods. Duane worked as a carpenter doing construction and building apartment buildings with Nelson-Otterkill and was also a bricklayer for a spell. Lila and Duane also spent some time out in California painting houses. He laid the flooring in both his sister Mabel’s and the Carpenter’s barn and did a lot of bailing of flax, straw, and hay. Duane and Lila enjoyed dancing to the polka, schottische and waltz and they helped out at his sister Mabel’s barn dances every weekend. For a whole month straight, he never missed a night going to the dances all over the countryside in North Dakota and Minnesota. He built the house they have lived in since 1975. A fire gutted the house and he rebuilt it again. Duane and Lila’s home had been the location of at least 25 of the Knutson family reunions.
Duane enjoyed doing so many things, fishing with his grandson Chad was always on the top of his list. They would start out as betting men, a dollar for the first fish, one for the biggest, and another buck for the most…we still aren’t sure who ever came out ahead there. Kari and Duane spent a lot of quality time together building things in his shop, you name it, cabinets, shelves, cat houses, they did it all. He taught her how to fix things and build things in order to take care of herself and not have to rely on anyone for help. Another adventure that Duane was greatly known for is his winemaking, chokecherry was one of the kinds he and great granddaughter Alexis made together. In addition to making it he loved talking about how many bottles of wine he had in his ‘cellar’ and all the different kinds of wine he’d made. He enjoyed gardening with Madison, munching on the rutabaga straight out of the garden with Alexis, filling the wood stove with great granddaughter Bailey. Another favorite hobby was watching the Twins play baseball. Hunting was a great pastime for Duane, but while spending time with great granddaughter Madison in the deer stand, it was more snacking and telling stories than hunting. Another hunting story that Duane loved to tell was about how proud he was of Kari and the big buck she shot. Something all the kids will always remember is ice cream was a favorite of his and usually eaten before a meal “that way you know you have room for it!” Duane, as many of us heard after our visits, it is now time we bid you farewell, “We’ll see you in the funny papers”.
Duane is preceded in death by his daughter Brenda Lee (Knutson) Wirtz, his parents Charles and Mary (Knute) Knutson, As well as siblings Ida, Mabel, Adeline, Harry, Bernice, Oscar, Lloyd, Caroline, Phyllis, twin siblings Delores and Dennis, and Neil.
Left to mourn are his wife Lila, granddaughter Kari Smith, grandson Chad Sutherland, great-grand-daughters Alexis Worchester, Madison and Bailey Lee, and many many cousins, nieces, nephews and friends.
Funeral Services were held on Friday, August 14, 2020 at the Cease Family Funeral Home Chapel in Bagley, MN with Pastor Dale Adams officiating. Internment was at the Rice Free Lutheran Cemetery in Zerkel, MN. The Cease Family Funeral Home of Bagley assisted the family with arrangements.
Messages of condolence may be sent to ceasefuneralhome.com