George "Lefty" Keith Sycks, 89, of Park Rapids died Thursday May 17, 2007.
He was born Dec. 4, 1917 to Lafayette and Nora (Milender) Sycks in Backus. After graduating from Backus High School in 1935, he spent the next few years working at various jobs, in-cluding the Civilian Con-servation Corps (CCCs), railroad, logging camps and lumber yards.
He also played town team baseball with his three brothers. In 1939, he at-tended St. Cloud State where he played baseball and earned a bachelor of science degree in education.
Immediately after graduating from college in 1943, he entered the naval officer training program at Great Lakes and was commissioned as an ensign. He was assigned to Little Creek, VA where he volunteered for amphibious landing craft (ALC) duty. On "D-Day," June 6, 1944, he commanded an LCT at Omaha Beach.
He married Lavilla Cordes of Henning at Nor-folk, VA Sept. 7, 1945. Upon his honorable discharge from the Navy in 1946, he returned to civilian life and began a 35-year career in education. He earned his masters degree and in addi-tion to teaching was a coach, principal and guidance counselor. Well into his late 40s, he continued to play baseball with various teams throughout Minnesota.
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He was a member of Em-manuel Lutheran Church in Backus and attended Re-deemer Lutheran Church in Menahga.
Surviving are his wife; three children, Tom (Sue), Stefanie (Charles) Komschlies and Melanie (Russ) Lamppa; brother, Lynn; five grandchildren, three great-grandchildren: and numerous nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by three brothers, Reginald in infancy, Roy and Cliff.
Visitation: 4 to 8 p.m. Fri-day, May 25 with a brief prayer service beginning at 4 at the Jones-Pearson Fu-neral Home in Park Rapids and one hour prior to the service.
Funeral: 11 a.m. Satur-day, May 26 at Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Backus.
Honorary casketbear-ers: Michael Don, Rollin and Gerald Sycks, Phillip Bower, Viljo Katainen and Reino Karjalainen.
Active casketbear-ers: Sid, Rod, Dalton, Pre-ston and Brock Sycks and John and Ashur Cordes.
Interment: Evergreen Cemetery, Backus.
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Memorials to Emmanuel Lutheran Church of Backus or Redeemer Lutheran Church of Menahga are pre-ferred in lieu of flowers.
