Wayne W. West

Lewiston, Wayne Wallace West, 89, of rural Lewiston passed away Saturday, August 18, 2012 at Good Shepherd Lutheran Home in Rushford. He was born August 27, 1922 in Duluth, MN to Marcus Wallace West and Grace Ferguson. His mother passed away when Wayne was eight. He then went to live with family in Billings, MT. Wayne later returned to Minnesota to attend high school, graduating from Washburn High School in 1940. Following his graduation, Wayne attended the University of Minnesota until being recruited to work at Lockheed Aircraft in Los Angeles, CA. In 1945 he moved to Claremont and started a general construction business. Wayne and Leona Tucker were married at the Little Brown Church in Nashua, IA. In 1950 he began working for Nels Johnson Construction of Winona. Wayne and Leona purchased a farm south of Lewiston in 1958. He continued his trade work for Howard Keller Construction. During Wayne's career he helped build Luther College, Winona State, Cotter and Winona Senior High. He retired from construction in 1965 and started farming full time and crafted all the buildings on his farm. Wayne was a former Farm Bureau board member and received the Winona County Conservation Land Management Award. He and Leona were former Winona County Fair King and Queen. He is survived by his wife, Leona, five children; Rockne (Robyn) West of Peterson, Wallace (Rosie) West of St. Charles, Lee (Nancy) West of Lewiston, Jan (Dean) Pagel of St. Charles and Tom (Shari) West of Savage, nine grandchildren; Joel, Chad, Sara, Aaron, Lori, Brenda, Kyle, Phil, Kelly and a granddaughter arriving in October, six great-grandchildren, Tucker, Lucas, Rylan, Brooklyn, Lilly and Hailey, and many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by two brothers and a sister. Funeral Services to celebrate Wayne's life will be 11AM Tuesday at Hoff Funeral Service in Lewiston. Burial will follow services in the Fremont Scotch Cemetery. Friends may call from 3-7PM Monday and 10 - 11AM Tuesday at the Hoff Funeral Service in Lewiston. Please share a memory of Wayne on-line and view his Tribute Video when it becomes available at www.hofffuneral.com.
Tribute video can be found at: videos.lifetributes.com/327883