Bayard Lewis

1-701-642-4000

Bayard Lewis, 91, Wahpeton, ND, died Thursday, June 24, 2010, at St. Francis Healthcare Campus, Breckenridge , MN . The Funeral Service will be 1:00 PM, Monday, June 28, at Bethel Lutheran Church , Wahpeton, ND, with Rev. Jim Gustafson officiating. Visitation will be Sunday, from 6 PM to 8 PM with a 7 PM prayer service at Vertin-Munson Funeral Home, Wahpeton, and one hour before the service at the church on Monday. Interment will be at Fairview Memorial Gardens , Wahpeton.

Bayard was born September 19, 1918, in a log cabin at the side of a lake near Bemidji , MN . He was the son of John and Florence (Knox) Lewis, of Kentucky and Ohio . He was the fifth of six children born to the couple. Bayard lived in Wadena , MN , for over ten years before he graduated from high school in 1937. He was a child of The Great Depression, doing odd jobs to help support the family, and growing and selling vegetables on the corner and to the local grocery stores. As a teenager he learned to box, participating in many Wadena boxing matches as well as traveling to other towns in the area for matches. He was very good at it, advancing to the national Golden Gloves tournament in Chicago , as a twenty-one–year-old, before he was disqualified due to injury in the semi-finals.

In 1938, Bayard got a job on the Northern Pacific Railroad and was trained as a Telegrapher. He first held jobs as a replacement at several railroad depots in Minnesota and Southeastern North Dakota, before he landed a job as the Depot Agent in Stirum , ND . It was there that he met his wife-to-be, Dorothy Wasdahl, when she was stranded at the railroad station during a blizzard, and he made donuts in the train station and served them to her and her friends. They were married on September 23, 1942, in Petaluma , CA ; where Bayard was stationed after joining the military during World War II. They lived for a year in California , while Bayard was trained to transcribe codes sent by foreign ships and planes, and shortly after their first child was born , Bayard was trained to transcribe codes sent by Japanese ships in the Pacific, while Dorothy went home to Cogswell , ND .

After the war, the couple lived in Barney and Milnor , ND , where Bayard was a Depot Agent and Telegrapher. In 1950, Bayard took advantage of the G.I. Bill, used by many returning veterans to pay for a college education. He entered the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks , where he graduated from the law school in 1955. While completing his law degree he worked nights at railroad towers, switching tracks for trains, while he did his studying, and in his limited spare time he helped build houses for resale.

Degree in hand, Bayard took his family (now four kids) and traveled south, stopping at law offices in various North Dakota towns to ask if they needed help. His timing was good when he stopped at Clifford Schneller’s law office in Wahpeton. Cliff welcomed him in, introduced him to many cases in progress, and retired shortly thereafter. In those first years Bayard continued to work nights at the railroad tower outside of Breckenridge , MN , while he worked on his law cases. Two years later he was elected States Attorney for Richland County , an office he held for 12 years. In 1979, Bayard was elected County Judge for Richland County , and held that job until he retired in 1991. Three more children were born to Bayard and Dorothy while living in Wahpeton, bringing the total to seven. They were members of Bethel Lutheran Church for over 50 years, and Bayard was a member of the Kiwanis Club and served on several boards for area community services. When he retired he insisted on going to the office, which was now a trailer with tools and machinery to continue his carpentry hobby, and with a room to drink coffee with friends from offices in previous jobs. He did the carpentry for fun, building or refinishing things for anyone who expressed an interest, with no acceptance of pay.

He will be remembered as an intelligent, generous, kind, fair and honest man, as well as a very hard worker and a wonderful father and husband. In his jobs as a lawyer and judge he touched many people’s lives and has received warm wishes from many people over the years.

Bayard is survived by his children: Gary (Sue) Lewis, Madison, WI; Linda (Dale) Parenteau, Rush City, MN; Jay (Lyntha) Lewis, Warrenton, VA; Gail Lewis, Centreville, MN; Robert (Heidi) Lewis, North St. Paul, MN; James (Vi) Lewis, Houston, Texas, 13 grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and his brother, George Lewis, St. Cloud, MN.

He was preceded in death by his parents, two brothers, two sisters, his daughter, Julie Lewis and his wife, Dorothy.