Dean Rodney Hedlund

Dean Rodney Hedlund, age 81, of Annandale, passed away on Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024, at the St. Cloud VA Community Care Center.

Memorial services will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 8, at the Kingston Community Center with visitation beginning at 9:30 a.m.

Interment with Military Honors will be at Sunset Cemetery at Happy Corner just outside of Kingston. A time of fellowship will follow back at the Kingston Community Center.

Dean was born Aug. 19, 1942, at University Hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota to William Sexton and Opal (Longwell) Hedlund. As an infant, Dean lived in Minneapolis for a short period of time and then moved to Sausalito, California, while his father worked in the shipyards during WW II. He then moved back to Minnesota with his family and settled on a farm in Kingston Township. He attended eight years of grade school in the one room schoolhouse at Happy Corner. He attended high school in Cokato until joining the US Navy on Jan. 14, 1960. He attended boot camp at the Naval Training Center in San Diego, California. Duty stations during his service years included Great Lakes Naval Base in Illinois, Puerto Rico, and aboard an LST (Landing Ship Tank) off the coast of Vietnam. On April 29, 1966, he was honorably discharged as an E4 Yeoman.

After his discharge from the Navy, Dean worked for a time at a railroad. While working for a mechanical contractor, he was accepted into an apprenticeship program for plumbing through the plumber’s union. He attended and graduated from Dunwoody Institute in Minneapolis as a plumber. He was a proud member of the Plumber’s Union Local 15. During his career as a plumber/pipefitter, Dean worked in many locations in Minnesota and throughout the United States, Canada, as well as the McMurdo Research Station in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. He purchased acreage near Stanley Eddy Memorial County Park in rural Annandale, Minnesota where he lived until the time of his death.

Dean enjoyed broom hockey, demolition derbies, pitching horseshoes (state champion), ice and spear fishing, traditional bow hunting, deer hunting with his grandsons on his property, watching high school and college wrestling, riding his Harley, spending time with family and participating in grandkids activities, and watching the sandhill cranes that would visit his property. He was a lifetime member of the Kingston American Legion, where he had served as Commander, as well as a lifetime member of Post 7664 VFW and a lifetime member of Chapter 37 DAV.

Dean is survived by his daughters, Stacy (Buck) Twardy of Hutchinson, Jenny (Eric) Iverson of Dassel; grandchildren, Jordan and Nathan Twardy, Tanner, Alexis, and Chloe Iverson; great-granddaughter, Noelle Iverson Hamade; sisters, Kay Anderson of Dassel and Linda (Alan) Hewitt of Kasota; brothers, Darrel of Kingston and Dale (Cindy) of Hutchinson; and many nieces, nephews, and his cat, Baroni.

He was preceded in death by his parents; brother-in-law, Jim Anderson; and sister-in-law, Nancy Hedlund.

Darrel Hedlund, Dale Hedlund, and Jerry Hokkala will serve as urn bearers.