I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
May 13, 1999
By Devlyn Brooks
He was a northwestern Minnesota political fixture -- a kingpin of sorts for politics in this region during the 1960s, '70s and on into the '80s.
He was a hard-working politician, who strove to help "working people."
He was a remarkable friend, a consummate gentleman and a steadfastly honest man.
He was a man of another time, a person who commanded respect and a people's politician.
He was Bagley's L.J. Lee, and when he died Sunday, all of northwestern Minnesota lost a gem of a man and politician, area lawmakers and political aficionados said Wednesday.
Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. today at Faith Lutheran Church in Bagley, with the Rev. Mardy Schermerhorn officiating. Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service, and internment will be at Bagley City Cemetery.
From those who served in the state Legislature with him from 1960 to 1972, to those who only knew of him, everybody said Lee was a great man.
"He was a very good person in addition to his political contributions. He was always a gentleman," said Bemidji's Lorraine Cecil, a former 7th Congressional District DFL chairwoman. "It's an end of an era. I'm extremely sad, and I'm sure that's how other DFL old-timers feel too.
"I think his type of politician is no more -- at least not in this area," she added.
Public service defined who Lee was, from the early days of serving as a representative for the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 49, to his 12 years as a state representative to his last offices of Bagley mayor and Clearwater County commissioner.
According to those who served with him, he always worked for the betterment of working class people -- a life he knew well from having farmed and worked with large machinery.
"He was always wanting to help people. That's why he got involved in politics," according to Tenstrike's Bob Falk, a former state representative who served with Lee and was a close friend of his. "If you had a problem, and he thought you were right, he'd fight to the end. He was a people's legislator -- that's what he was."
Others remembered him for the political powerbroker he became in northwestern Minnesota. To hear lawmakers tell it, to get elected, a person had to have Lee's stamp of approval.
Take for instance Bemidji's Doug St. Onge who traveled to St. Paul to visit with Lee before making his decision to run for state representative.
"He left (office) the year before I was elected, but he helped a lot with my campaign and gave good political and legislative advice," he said. "And I always listened to him, and he was always right."
Falk said that when he was a representative and people sought his advice on running for office, he would first ask, "Have you got L.J.'s approval?"
Current Beltrami County DFL Chairman Michael Meuers said only: "I'm not sure he could make a candidate, but he sure could break one. If you wanted to run for office over there, you had to go through L.J. Lee."
Lee became so powerful a figure that when he was serving in the House, other legislators referred to him as "Dad," Falk said, because if you had a question, he was the man to ask.
In fact, St. Onge said, had Lee served just wo more years in the House, he would easily have been elected speaker of the House in 1974 when the DFL party finally took control of it.
"He was admired by people across the political spectrum" Falk said. "We were real fortunate to have him there. We always went to him."
And still others remembered how fiercely he loved his wife, Ferol, who died about eight months before him in August.
"He had a great love for his wife," said Rep. Irv Anderson, DFL-International Falls, who served four terms with Lee. "She was always at his side."
Cecil said she talked with Lee quite frequently in recent years, and she said she felt he hadn't been the same since his wife died. "He missed her," she said.
Concluding what Lee meant to many people, former 7th Congressional District Rep. Bob Bergland said: "He was a classy guy. A man of his word. He handled himself always with dignity. And that was his heart and soul. He had no time for people who were wishy-washy. He was a self-taught political scientist of a different time -- the last of a breed."
Lee, who was born March 18, 1907, in Glenwood, died Sunday at Clearwater County Memorial Hospital in Bagley.
He moved with his family to Gonvick in 1914 where they farmed near Berner and he attended a country school.
During 1925-26, he left the farm for short periods to work in the harvest fields of South and North Dakota, in the woods of Michigan and at Packard Motor Company of Detroit.
In 1927 he worked for his brother as a fireman on a steam shovel, and for 20 years he operated gas, diesel and electric powered shovels, drag-lines and cranes in the United States, Greenland and England.
"He was elected to represent the "49ers" in 1948, and held that position until he retired in 1968.
During that time, he also served as 9th Congressional District vice president for the Minnesota Federation of Labor.
He was elected to the Minnesota House in 1960, and after 12 years announced that he would not seek re-election. During his last term, he served as assistant minority leader.
He then was appointed by Gov. Wendell Anderson to be a member of the University of Minnesota Board of Regents to fill a one-year vacancy. He was re-elected for another six-year term.
Most notably, Lee played a major role in uniting the Democratic and Farm-Labor parities, earning him the honor of being Clearwater County's first DFL party chairman. He later served as chairman of the party's 9th Congressional District and on the party's Central Committee.
He also served as mayor of Bagley, as a city councilman, Clearwater County commissioner and on various regional boards and commissions.
Survivors include a daughter, Catherine (George) Pezdirtz, of Chicago; a son, John (Audrey), of Bagley; four grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; two nieces; and four nephews.
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