The wake and the funeral

As horrible as Linus's death was his wake and funeral were a beautiful example of how well loved he was. Linus lived in Elma for his entire life except while in the service during the Korean War. He was 70 years old and he had attended school there, married and had a family there, ran Lentz Feed, was very active in the church, and served in the fire department for over 40 years. Elma is a town of less then 600 people surrounded by farm land and other equally small Iowa towns. Linus must have known every single one of those people and touched all of their lives in one way or another.

For five straight hours at his wake there was a line along the entire length of the viewing room, across the back of the room, through the foyer, out onto the front steps and down the entire length of the building to the road. They estimate there must have been well over 1000 people there. Probably closer to 1500. At any given time there were a dozen horse and buggies in the parking lot. He worked very closely with the Mennonite community and they turned out in full force for his wake. Hundreds of people stood in 32 degree weather for a chance to pay their last respects. As the evening went on groups of men and women in matching jackets arrived representing fire departments from the neighboring towns. There were groups (and probably some of them were entire fire departments) from Alta Vista, Cresco, Lime Springs, Riceville, New Hampton, and Protovin (I know I'm forgetting some of them). On either side of the casket and throughout the room there were 67 bouquets of flowers, potted plants, and beautiful memorial gifts. They had to cancel the prayer service and the rosary that had been planned because so many people were waiting in line.

The next morning the funeral was held in Lourdes. It's a town about 7 miles away that has a bigger church then Elma. There was standing room only. Again there were rows and rows of men in dress uniforms from both the military and the fire departments.


From the funeral to the cemetery back in Elma there was a funeral procession lead by about 10 fire trucks and ambulances representing his involvement in the fire department and as an EMT. The American flag was flying from the backs of the vehicles and the vehicles lead a procession of no less than 50 cars from Lourdes back to Elma.

The grave site ceremony was incredibly moving. They had the formal gun salute due a military veteran. The fire department did the formal ringing of the "four fives" used to announce the death of a fallen firefighter. When the current and retired firefighters in attendance were asked to come to attention it seemed like half of the people there snapped to attention. A lone bugle played Taps. It was heart wrenching....and truly beautiful all at the same time.

Linus was buried in the Elma cemetery. From his grave you can see the farm house that he grew up in. The area of the cemetery that he's buried in used to be part of the farm until his family sold the land to the Catholic church to expand the cemetery. He truly was born and laid to rest on the same land.

I have no doubt that Linus was deeply loved by everyone whose life he touched. He was a very special man and he will be missed very much.

Here is a picture of the fire trucks leading the procession. The car that I was in is still on Highway 63 and the head of the procession has turned the corner.
In this picture we have turned the corner and I am looking back at Highway 63.