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Aug. 21, 1926-Sept. 6, 2017
EDINA -- Roger Joseph Cornelius Louwagie, 91, of Edina and formerly of Lucan, died Sept. 6, 2017.
Born Aug. 21, 1926, in Baux-de-Breteuil, France, Roger attended Catholic boarding school in Belgium as a young boy. He lived through World War II as a teenager, with pilots fighting air battles over his family's farm. He served in the French military shortly after the war ended.
He married Paula Vandewalle on Oct. 2, 1951, and they soon set sail for the United States. The couple lived and worked among Belgian relatives farming in Green Valley. Later, they bought their own farm near Lucan, where they raised six children.
Roger took pride in working hard. He once teased his children that he had bought a "silo unloader," which they delightedly assumed was a new machine that would relieve them of the manual chore. Instead, he presented them with a new pitchfork. Roger often spent summer's hottest days baling hay and pulling weeds in soybean fields. He wasn't apt to complain.
But Roger also loved playing hard with his family, and was willing to try almost anything; Despite not knowing how to swim, he took up water skiing in his late 40s and still skied at age 79. He tried snow skiing in his 50s. When he wiped out, he laughed and tried again.
After he and Paula retired from farming in 1991, they devoted more time to traveling. Roger's biggest heartbreak was losing Paula to cancer in October of 2000 after 49 years of marriage.
Roger moved to Edina in 2002, first during winters, then full time. He stayed active by working for several years at Byerly's grocery store, where he grew to know regular customers. He lived in a condominium where he met good friend Elinor Ballou, who lived down the hall.
Roger showed genuine interest and concern about people around him. Even as his body slowly wore out over his last years and he depended on daily care, he offered to try to help his family do whatever was needed.
Roger was a member of Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church in Lucan, and the Lucan Lion's Club.
He is survived by sons Daniel and Janice of Lucan, Philip and Lauri of Rochester, James and Julie of Apple Valley and Vincent and Deborah of Minneapolis; daughters Jolene and Kevin Knutson of Eden Prairie and Pamela and Mitchel Rauk of Minneapolis; Grandchildren Joseph, Kristin, Andrea, Timothy, Jenna, Megan, Nathan, Samuel, Zachary and Anthony; four great-grandchildren; brother Joseph in France.
Besides Paula, he is preceded in death by two brothers and an infant daughter.
A private service will be held at the Our Lady of Victory cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations preferred to Allina Hospice Foundation, 1055 Westgate Dr., St. Paul, MN 55114