Thomas J. Landwehr

Mass of Christian Burial celebrating the life of Thomas J. Landwehr, 92, of St. Cloud will be at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, November 3, 2017 at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in St. Cloud. Reverend Thomas Knoblach will officiate. Interment with military honors will be in the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery, Little Falls.

Visitation will be from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Thursday and after 10:00 a.m. on Friday, both at Holy Spirit Catholic Church. Parish prayers will be held at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday at the church.

Tom died peacefully of natural causes on Sunday, October 29, at St. Benedict’s Center, St. Cloud. He and his twin brother Roy were born to Adolph and Magdalena (Kraemer) Landwehr at the St. Cloud Hospital on May 16, 1925. He attained the age of 92 years, 5 months, and 13 days, and was the last of his siblings, which included his sister Mariette (Lodermeier) and brothers Harry, Roy, Wilbert, Dan, Jack, and Jim, to pass away. They were raised in St. Cloud and spent summers at the family cottage on Grand Lake. Tom graduated from Cathedral High School in 1943. In those days his family owned Quality Dairy, where Tom worked during his school years as an ice cream taster, or so he said. He served as a navigator in a B-17 "Flying Fortress" during WWII, based in Horham, Essex County, England. Tom flew 14 missions over Nazi-occupied Western Europe, an experience he was reticent about in the years following, but he did come to enjoy the annual reunions of the Eighth Army Airforce 95th bomb group, later in life.

He married Laverne (Jo) Lodermeier in St. Joseph Sept. 3rd, 1949, and is survived by four children, Terese (Gregory) Melis, Port Wing, Wisconsin; David (Susan) Landwehr, Moose Lake; Peggy (Michael) Roske, Collegeville; and Dennis (Liz Parkinson) Landwehr, Port Hope, Ontario, Canada; 10 grandchildren, and 11 great grandchildren, four sisters-in-law, and many nieces and nephews. Besides his siblings, he was preceded in death by one grandson, Nathan, and his loving wife of 56 years, Jo, who died in 2005. He was a devout Catholic and he and Jo were charter members of Holy Spirit Parish.

After the War, Tom and his brothers raced canoes in the 500 mile Aquatennial Mississippi River race, and fished for muskies and pike from their land-lease cabin on Sucker Bay, Leech Lake. Tom was an avid outdoorsman, skilled with a shotgun, happy to be in a duck blind. For 60 years he was a fixture, on calm days, standing in his canoe on the weed beds of his beloved Grand Lake, catching and fileting large-mouth bass. Tom was very skilled with his hands, both in his day job as a machinist at DeZurik’s in Sartell, as well as with his life-long hobby as a taxidermist. He preserved hundreds of the birds and fish he so enjoyed watching, catching, and hunting.

Tom’s family appreciates the support of the staff of Arise Home Care and St. Benedict’s Senior Community. Especially valued by Tom was the love and care of his granddaughters Michaela Jo, Molly, and Rachel and her family.