- Date Of Birth: May 10, 1940
- Date Of Death: April 16, 2023
- State: Michigan
Francis J. DeLage
Age 82
Died April 16, 2023, in Minneapolis
Francis J. DeLage was born May 10, 1940, on a farmstead in the French community of Gentilly in northwestern Minnesota. He met his future wife on the Iron Range in northeastern Minnesota. And he lived his final years near grandchildren in the south metro. At each stage of his life, two values held true: his pride in hard work and his love of family.
Francis spent his early years in Gentilly and Crookston, where his family raised livestock and his father was a skilled laborer. Work in the iron mines brought his family to Aurora, where Francis met Beverly Lunde, the daughter of a carpenter also drawn to the Iron Range for work.
Francis left Minnesota to join the U.S. Army in 1958, but his heart stayed with that carpenter’s daughter. He proposed while in the service and the two were married May 13, 1961, at the rectory of St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Crookston shortly after his discharge.
They started their life together in Minneapolis, where son Robin was born. They moved to Bemidji in 1962, where daughter Michelle was born. They returned to Crookston in 1964 and had two more children, son Jaime and daughter Janelle.
Francis was known in Crookston as the longtime owner and operator of DeLage’s Phillips 66 and U-Haul. Later in his career he sold used cars while continuing to rent U-Hauls and then, in semi-retirement, he worked behind the counter at an auto parts store. When he fully retired and they moved to a Farmington, Minnesota, condominium complex, he served on the condo board and took on the maintenance portfolio. He was not “fully retired.”
Francis died April 16, 2023, at M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center after a recent diagnosis of leukemia.
He was preceded in death by his father, Louis; mother, Laura, (nee Page); and brother Ronald (Pam).
He is survived by wife, Beverly; children Robin (Kendra), Michelle (Patrick) Prosen, Jaime (Constance) and Janelle (Dana) Strumstad; brother, Darrell (Kathy); sister, Shereen (Mike) Lanctot; sister-in-law Pam (Ronald) DeLage; eight grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
