Ervin Arthur Monroe

Funeral services for Ervin A. Monroe, age 89, of Milaca, will be held Friday, April 12, 2019 at 4:00 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church in Milaca with Rev. Tim Bauer officiating. Visitation will be held from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. at the church.  Interment with military honors will take place at Forest Hill Cemetery.

Ervin was the first-born male child of Art and Selma.  He was born in Foley, Minnesota on August 01, 1929.  He attended school in Milaca, but left school at the age of 15 to work for his dad butchering beef and meat cutting.  During this time, he also joined the National Guard.  At age 17, he rode with a fellow from Milaca to California.  He stayed a few months with Toots and Elmer Johnson (a relative), and then moved to a Danish town called Solvieng.  He loved to talk about that town.  The man he rode to California with was opening a hardware store and Ervin was able to work for him until he returned to Minnesota the following spring.  That year, the spring floods were ravaging Aitkin County.  His National Guard unit was called and assigned to a boat working with the Coast Guard rescuing flood victims.  When that duty was complete, Ervin worked in the Twin Cities for Grant Batteries, and it was at this time he was introduced to Iris Anderson, who was also in Minneapolis, but from Milaca.  They were married on August 05, 1950 and two children were born to them, Patricia and Thomas.  In 1950, the Korean War broke out and the National Guard was Federalized and attached to the 47^thArmy Division, 194^thTank Battalion. He was stationed at Fort Rucker Alabama with his young family for two years.  After his duty there, he again returned to Minnesota.  They lived in Granite Falls (1953) where he again worked with his dad in the meat cutting business.  He moved his family to Elk River and then to Grand Rapids, working in the trade of meat cutting his dad taught him.  It was in Grand Rapids that his wife Iris passed away on November 04, 1957. He later met Peg (Saari) Makedonsky. With his two children, Tom and Patricia, he blended family with Peg’s three children, Sandra, Brian, and Colleen. They were later blessed with another child and named him John.  His brother, Don, was in the process of selling the family meat processing plant in Milaca and Ervin decided to buy the family business and move the crew to Milaca in 1967.  The Monroe Processing Plant was on a farm south of Highway 23.  Ervin combined his skills in meat processing with raising chickens for Saint Cloud based “Jack Frost”.  The whole family was involved in the work that went into meat processing and raising chickens.  Ervin retired as a building engineer from the Milaca School District and left behind many chuckles in the minds of fellow engineers, teachers, and principals.

Ervin passed away April 05, 2019 at the Saint Cloud VA Medical Center.

Ervin is survived by his wife of sixty years, Peggy; children, Patricia Then of Sauk Rapids, Sandra (Duane) Miles of Coon Rapids, Thomas Monroe of Savage, Brian (Debbie) Monroe of Evansville, Indiana, Colleen (David) Barksdale of Forest Lake, and John (Lori) Monroe of Milaca; grandchildren, Rachel Wuellner, Luke (Shannon) Then, Sonny (Trisha) Miles, Corey (Amanda) Miles, Nathan (Jackie) Monroe, Nicholas (Christy) Monroe, Angela (Joshua) Deutsch, Andrea (Marshall) Anson, Sara (Andy) Totzke, Dylan (Kelly) Monroe, Brianna Monroe, Terra Barksdale, and Candace (Darryl) Mayfield; great grandchildren, Isabel, Grace,  and Dylan Wuellner, Talon and Parker Miles, Jude, Ava, and  Porter Monroe, Dominica and Duke Deutsch, Abel and Elias Anson, Emmerick and Dawson Totzke, Markell Barksdale, Denae, Dajahnae, and Dash Mayfield; brother, Robert (Betty) Monroe, sister, JoAnn Schmidt, and sister-in-law, Karoline Monroe.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Art and Selma; brothers, Norman and Donald (Mary) Monroe, father and mother-in-law, Enoch and Alice Saari;  and Iris (Anderson) Monroe, mother of Patricia and Thomas.