Byron Edgar Sagmoen, 92, recently of Park Rapids, former lifelong resident of Thief River Falls, died Monday, Jan. 14, 2008 at Heritage Living Center in Park Rapids.
He was born April 1, 1915 in Rosewood, the son of Charles and Gerda (Johnson) Sagmoen. He was bap-tized and confirmed at Rin-dal Lutheran Church. He grew up in Rosewood and attended the Rosebank Country School through the eighth grade. At age 16, he went to work at the Nels Pe-terson Farm. He later worked for Salveston Studio in Thief River Falls as a photographer and photo painter. He left there to work at a lefse bakery started by his uncle, Lars Furan. Later he and a cousin opened a lefse shop in Grand Forks.
That ended when they were drafted into the Army. During World War II, he served in England and went into France with the invasion forces. He served in the 3110 Signal Service Battalion, achieving the rank of staff sergeant.
He married Jane Ring May 31, 1950 in Thief River Falls. He and a brother went into business together and did many types of work, in-cluding painting and TV antennae installations. They formed the partnership, Sagmoen Brothers, doing interior and exterior paint-ing, staining and wallpaper-ing, along with furniture repair and refinishing, which they continued until their retirement.
He was a member of Zion Lutheran Church in Thief River Falls and a lifetime member of the VFW. He and Jane continued to live in Thief River Falls until De-cember 2004 when they moved to Park Rapids to live with their daughter and son-in-law. He entered Heritage Living Center in May 2007.
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He is survived by his wife; one daughter, Jeneen (Patrick) Klein of Park Rap-ids; a brother, Borden of Se-attle; brother-in-law, Walter Chilstrom of Minneapo-lis; two grandsons, three great-grandchildren, four nieces and three nephews.
He was preceded in death by his brother, Bartlett; sis-ter, VanDella Chilstrom; sister-in-law, Edna Sag-moen, and two infant sis-ters.
Visitation: one hour prior to the service.
Funeral: 11 a.m. Thurs-day, Jan. 17 at Johnson Fu-neral Service in Thief River Falls. Rev. Ale Tulu will be the officiant. Organist will be Ida Nordvall and soloist Diane Johnson, singing "In the Garden" and "Be Still my Soul."
Casket bearers: Patrick, Christopher and Nicholas Klein, Ray, Kent and Kurt Wagner.
Interment: Rindal Lu-theran Cemetery, rural Thief River Falls.
Military honors will be provided by the Thief River Falls VFW Honor Guard Team.
