It’s been worth the wait.

So believe the family of the first Veteran recently laid to rest at the newly opened Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery - Redwood Falls. Army Veteran Richard (Dick) LeSage was interred on August 7, the first of thousands of Minnesota Veterans and eligible family members who will eventually find their final resting place among the 81.6 acres in the southwestern corner of the state.

After more than a decade of advocacy by community leaders and funding applications by the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs (MDVA), a vision has become reality. With three State Veterans Cemeteries already located in Duluth, Little Falls and Preston, and the Fort Snelling National Cemetery in the Twin Cities area, MDVA wanted to provide a burial option closer to home for those living in the southwest part of the state, notes MDVA Interim Commissioner Brad Lindsay.

Redwood County officials and Veterans advocates agreed and spent some 14 years working to make the new cemetery a reality.

One of those advocates was Robert (Bob) LeSage, himself a Vietnam War era Navy Veteran, whose brother Dick was the first interred at the new State Veterans Cemetery. Bob speaks highly of his brother and a family who followed a tradition of military service; their father was a World War II Veteran and prisoner of war with many medals, and another brother also served. “It was important to be a Veteran, to serve,” Bob explained. “It was just the thing to do.”

While his father did not talk much about his military service, “it made us proud,” Bob says, noting that he and his brothers’ service was “a great experience” for all of them.

Dick and Bob were not only brothers but best friends, and although they held a Celebration of Life in the summer of 2021, Bob said the family was willing to wait to inter Dick’s remains until the new cemetery was ready. Wanting to do “everything I could to make this viable,” Bob first sold 63 acres to Redwood County to use for the future cemetery, and then donated another 14 acres to the county as well. (Another local landowner, Dean Swigert, also sold 4.2 acres to Redwood County for the cemetery.)

Bob has closely watched the cemetery’s construction and says he is “proud to be a little part of it,” describing the grounds as “breathtaking.”

Dick LeSage was born on November 11, 1948 – Veterans Day – and passed at the age of 71 on August 7, 2020; he was interred exactly three years later on August 7, 2023.