Lyle Carlton Frank , 91, of Preston, passed away Wednesday, October 26 at the Spring Valley Care Center.
Services were held at Christ Lutheran Church in Preston on Saturday, October 29 at 11 a.m, with visitation one hour before services, with lunch after the service, then interment at Bloomfield Lutheran Church Cemetery.
Lyle was born July 4, 1925, to Charles Frank and Clara Jacobson Frank near Etna, where he attended Etna School, worked on the family farm, and worked for a time for Standard Oil Gas Storage on Highway 16 east of Spring Valley.
He married Mavis Irene Lentz on December 18, 1946 at Bloomfield Lutheran Church, where he ushered, sang in the men’s quartet, and sang with Mavis in the choir.
They lived in Etna for a time, farmed with the Stoskopf family a time in Canton, Minn., and then moved and farmed near Mystery Cave near Spring Valley until November 1958. They moved to the Buffalo Grove area near Preston and farmed there until retirement. He most enjoyed Herefords, feeder pigs, and sheep, and mowing lawn.
Lyle sold Vitabelator Feeds from Omaha, Nebr., and he sold Archer Oil. Lyle enjoyed fishing and hunting, soil conservation, strip farming and establishing dams and meadowlands. He enjoyed the peaceful valley, and, with his sons, he established the farm as an official Minnesota Tree Farm.
Lyle and Mavis joined Christ Lutheran Church, where he taught Sunday School for a time and sang in the choir. He sang in the State Line Male Chorus, where he said he learned to enjoy drinking coffee. Lyle and Mavis sang extensively in church for funerals and special music as well as at various other churches and events all their life.
Lyle enjoyed good cooking, especially club, lefse, and lutefisk, and he enjoyed church dinners, WCCO Radio, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, KNXR, and his grandchildren.
Lyle is survived by two daughters and three sons: LaDonna Kranz (Jack) of St Charles, Minn.; Carolyn Frank of Olympia, Wash.; Noel (Noël Quale) of Owatonna, Minn.; Carlton (Gina) of Austin, Minn.; and Christian (Tracy) of Custer, S. Dak.
Lyle is survived by seven grandchildren: Michael Kranz (Terri) of Locust Grove, Va.; Janet Davis (Toby) of Pineville, Ark.; Crystalyn Autuchovich (Jesse) of Portland, Oreg.; Alec Frank (Lydia) of Austin, Minn.; Erica Nelson (Ben) of Austin, Minn.; Dylan Frank and Ethan Frank of Custer, S. Dak.; and 13 great-grandchildren.
Lyle is survived by a sister, Clarice Frank Clark of Spring Valley; sister-in-law and brother-in-law Elaine and Jon Stedelman of Rochester, sisters-in-law Bernice Root of Wykoff and Francis Passe of Rochester, sister-in-law and brother-in-law Carol Jean and Ernest Meyers III of Wykoff, and sisters-in-law Pauline Lentz of Spring Valley and Arlone Crowson of Hastings, Minn.
Lyle was preceded in death by his wife, Mavis Irene Lentz Frank; daughter Mary Irene Frank, his parents, two brothers, Clayton and Beatrice Nagel Frank of Cherry Grove, and Donald Frank of Spring Valley; sister Nora and Wendell Vrieze of Cherry Grove, sister Charlotte and Albert Nelson of Ostrander, and brothers-in-law Lyle Clark of Spring Valley, Doane Root of Wykoff, Eugene Passe of Rochester, Jerry Lentz of Spring Valley, and Mervin Crowson of Lake City, Minn.