Vagts, Martin Thomas 1927 - 2018

VAGTS, KAKAC, THOMPSON, NICHOLS, GRANO DE ORO, MCGEE, LUNDEEN, BRAUSEN

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 5/22/2024 at 16:07:25

Martin Thomas Vagts passed away peacefully on Sunday, August 12th, 2018 at Evan’s Memorial home in Cresco, IA with his wife Dorothy by his side. He was born on April 29, 1927, to Anna Rose Kakac Vagts and Frederich William Vagts in a small house in Cresco. Martin had one brother John and one sister Mary Ann. He attended grade school and high school in Cresco, but left during his senior year to help his dad on the farm.

Martin met his future wife in the fall of 1943. They both loved to dance, and as Martin wrote, they “went together in 1946 and 1947 and went nearly every Thursday night to the Inwood Ballroom. We didn’t get tired then.”

They were engaged on Christmas Eve in 1947 and were married in Cresco’s Immanuel Lutheran Church on June 2nd, 1948. Martin and Dorothy had 70 wonderful married years together and were blessed with the birth of three daughters, Kathy, Diane and Karen.

Martin was a jack of many trades. He was a farmer at the core, but he also started selling real estate in 1973 and then went on to auction school in Mason City, to become an auctioneer. He drove school bus for a time and also earned his pilot license. Martin was a great singer and was known to play a bit on the guitar or pound out a few notes on the piano. Almost magically, he could exquisitely whistle any tune he heard. He was a husband, a son, a father and a grandfather, a story teller and a joke teller, a water skier and a farmer. He deeply loved his family, his friends and his church. His influence will forever remain in the lives of all who knew him.

Martin was preceded in death by parents Fred and Anna Vagts, brother John Vagts, and granddaughter Sally Nichols Thompson. He is survived by his wife Dorothy Vagts, sister Mary Ann, daughters Kathy Nichols, Diane Vagts, and Karen Vagts, grandchildren Ashley Nichols, Jill Grano De Oro, Laura McGee, Ben Lundeen and Sarah Lundeen, great grandchildren Gracie and Evelyn Brausen, Sophia and Kellan McGee, and Henric, Isabella and Eliana Grano De Oro.

Private family services will be held.

Memorials may be directed to Howard County Hospice.

Source: Lindstrom Funeral Home database

Howard Obituaries maintained by Constance McDaniel Hall.
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