Nolan Bacon
Nolan Bacon, 84, formerly of Leader and Wadena, passed away December 13, 2023, in Brooklyn Center.
Formal memorial arrangements are pending for June, 2024.
Nolan was born to Laurence and Ruth (Olson) Bacon on April 2, 1939 in a house west of Leader that is still in the Bacon family today. His father passed away in October 1946 and for a time he and his older brother, Dennis, lived with his paternal grandparents while their mother attended teachers training in St. Cloud. When his mother remarried, he moved to a farm north of Nimrod. He enjoyed and excelled at track and cross country and graduated from Sebeka High School in 1957.
Soon after high school, Nolan enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, serving in Alaska, Nebraska and Florida. He came back from northern Alaska to marry Ellen Frisbie in Hibbing on March 25, 1959 and they became parents to their first of six children in 1960. After serving in the U.S. Air Force, he worked for a time with Morgan Adhesives near Akron, Ohio, before relocating to Minnesota in 1966 and eventually settling in Leader in 1968. He worked primarily in construction for most of his remaining active years, taking classes at the technical college in Staples and partnering with Dennis until his untimely passing in 1976. He cooked both on a Louisiana oil rig and as a private caterer and joined his Olson cousins in their landscaping work for a short time in the 1990’s. He also obtained a fireworks license and put on a small number of town shows near Motley for some time. He was a member of the Leader Lions.
Nolan never seemed to fully retire until his health no longer allowed him to live on his own. He had been in multiple accidents over the years and in 2019 he eventually needed to move to a nursing home where his health needs could be fully met - first in Little Falls and then in Brooklyn Center. He lost some of his mental acuity but retained his humor until the end.
It would be no stretch to remember Nolan as someone smart, colorful and gregarious, almost too much so at times. He loved to cook, hunt, fish, keep a garden and be the life of a party. He enjoyed reading Western novels, playing pinochle and cribbage and listening to country music. He was a devoted Christian who both believed in and created opportunities for atonement and he made a life-changing stride for everyone in his life when he gave up drinking for good in early 1986. He was deeply active in AA from then until his move to Little Falls in 2019 and went out of his way to be a mentor to other followers of Bill W.
Nolan is survived by his wife, Ellen; five children, Brett (Mary Beth), Lee (Gretchen), Nola Schultz, Dana (Michelle) and Travis (Kerri); 14 grandchildren and many great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his father, Laurence; mother, Ruth; stepfather, Herb Crackel; one brother, Dennis; one sister, Mary; one son, Laurence Everett and one granddaughter, Liv.
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