OBITUARY: Roger Sagedahl

Roger Sagedahl, died peacefully surrounded by his family in the Glenwood hospital on Thursday, January 9, 2025 at the age of 90. Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, January 20 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Brooten. Visitation will be held on Sunday, January 19th from 3:00 - 5:00 p.m. at the church. Visitation will also be one hour prior to the service on Monday. Interment will be in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in Brooten. Arrangements are with the Hoplin-Hitchcock Funeral Home in Brooten.

Roger Wayne Sagedahl, the son of Cornell and Opal (Kalland) Sagedahl, was born on February 1, 1934 in Brooten, MN. He was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran faith. He grew up in Brooten and lived there his entire life. As a kid, he mowed lawns for 50 cents and starting in 1949, he worked at the auditorium a.k.a The Brooten Pavilion (before they had booths) and made money handing out roller skates. He graduated from Brooten High School, Class of 1951. Following graduation, Roger worked on the railroad with his father. Then he enlisted in the Army in April 1957, stationed in Korea, and was honorably discharged in February 1959. Following his service to the country, he worked at the Brooten High School as the custodian for 30 years before retiring in 1989. The work there included cleaning, fixing all things and shoveling coal on the frigid Minnesota days and nights.

Roger was united in marriage to Beatrice JoAnn Damhof on August 22, 1964 at Zion Lutheran Church in Belgrade and they made their home in Brooten. He was a lifelong member of Trinity Lutheran Church, where he started singing in the choir at the age of 14, and sang until his eyes wouldn’t allow it anymore. He was very proud to tell the stories about how when he sang in high school, the place was packed on the night of a choir concert and they always sang acapella. He taught himself to play the violin and enjoyed playing along to many old time records daily.

Roger was a lifelong athlete and enjoyed playing football, basketball, baseball and track in high school. After high school, he was on the Home Bakery fast pitch softball team, bowled in league, collected many horseshoe trophies over the years and played many rounds of golf (never riding a cart) during his retirement years. He loved reading the daily newspapers and would work the crossword puzzles everyday while his vision was still good. He continued to keep up on current events, including checking the sports box scores of his grandchildren and other relatives. He enjoyed playing lottery scratch offs and also collected cans around town and in the country for many years, for a little extra cash. He spent many hours metal detecting around the area, often getting called by the locals when they lost a ring outside. When he wasn’t able to drive his car anymore, he switched to riding his bicycle around Brooten, up until just a couple of months ago. The hobby Roger loved most was collecting antiques. He would mark up the auction posters to plan his attack and would come home with flats filled with goodies. Sometimes the flats/boxes included stuff he didn’t really want, but kept anyway (Bea wasn’t a fan of that part). Roger was also an historian of Brooten information and he is the one of only a few that were born in town and never left. He could tell you who lived in every house in town, their family tree and what years the kids graduated. He could recall what years sports teams were good and who played on those teams. He knew who married who and if they were in the same class, younger or older. He could recall some of this information up to the day he passed.

Roger is survived by daughters Emily (Greg) Uhde of Glenwood, Sarah (Nathan) Hagen of Brooten, and son Greg (Beth) Sagedahl of Twin Valley; grandchildren Jaden (fiance Belle) and Tate (fiance Morgan) Sagedahl, Damon, Avarie, and McKenna Uhde, Easton and Adley Hagen; sister Eileen Eskelson; brothers Sherwood (Carol) and Robert (Yvonne); sisters-in-law, Karen Sagedahl, Marlene Sagedahl, Mary (Merlin) Johnson, Ruth (Wes) VonEschen; and Glorianne Whitmore.

He was preceded in death by his wife; his parents; mother and father-in-law Anthony and Clara Damhof; his siblings Charles, Kenneth, Larry, Suzanne Sagedahl; brothers-in-law, Edwin Eskelson and Allen Bayer; sister-in-law Delores Bayer; nephew Tim Eskelson; niece Lesley Sagedahl.

To send online condolences, visit https://www.hoplinhitchcockfuneralhome.com/obituary/Roger-Sagedahl.