LYLE — The funeral for Vernon E. Nelson will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Church of St. Theodore in Albert Lea. Interment will be in Pleasant Hills Cemetery in Mona, Iowa, with Lyle American Legion Post 105 providing military honors.

Vernon Everrett Nelson, 88, of Conger, Minn., died Thursday (Nov. 13, 2008) in Ardmore, Okla.

Born Jan. 10, 1920, in Mitchell County, Iowa, he was a 1937 graduate of Otranto (Iowa) High School. He served in the Army during World War II, from 1942 to 1946, and was trained as a dental technician at Indianapolis Dental College. He served under Gen. Patton in Europe and was involved in the liberation of the concentration camp in Buchenwald, Germany. He received the Liberty Medal for the Normandy invasion, as well as the Good Conduct Medal.

On Feb. 26, 1949, he married Pearl Celestine Brandt in Sioux Falls, S.D. They made their home in Toeterville and Mona, both in Iowa, until moving to Conger in 1954. Mr. Nelson managed the Conger Co-op Elevator until 1959, when they moved to Lyle. He and his wife bought the Lyle Feed Mill, which they operated until returning to Conger in 1970 as part owner/manager of the Conger Elevator Co. Mr. Nelson retired in 1986 and was honored by the Farmers Elevator Grain Association at their annual meeting in Minneapolis for his 35 years in the grain business.

Survivors include his wife; three sons, Michael (Judy), Kevin and Clay (Marilyn); a daughter, Alice (Chuck) Richter; seven grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by four brothers and a sister.

Visitation will be from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, with a Prayer service at 7:30 p.m., at Bayview/Freeborn Funeral Home in Albert Lea. Visitation will continue an hour before the service Thursday at the church.

Memorials may be sent to St. James Catholic Church-Handicap Accessible Fund, P.O. Box 362, Twin Lakes, MN 56089.

www.bayviewfuneral.com