Andy J. "Red" Roraff

Andy J. “Red” Roraff was born on the family farm on the road to Hokah, MN on May 18,1922 to Andrew and Katherine, he was the youngest, behind Emil, August, Adrian, Bertha and Annie, the baby of the Roraff family. After graduating from the 8th grade from the old school in La Crescent, he was called home to help his parents work the farm. When WW2 started, he enlisted and went to Remis, France and then on to Germany where he guarded German POWs because of his ability to speak the German language which his parents spoke at home. After the war, he returned home to La Crescent and took a job at SM Supply Co. in LaCrosse, WI, and married Rachel G. Woolley and her two children, Judy and DeWayne. The family moved to Dresbach in the 50s to be closer to Rachel’s family. Red then was hired on as parts manager at United Auto Supply where he would work until he retired at 65. In the early 1970s, he and Rachel took a chance and went into the restaurant business opening The Halfway Diner on the pike between LaCrosse and LaCrescent. Red worked all day at United and would stop then would peel potatoes for the restaurant every night before going home. Rachel moved on to work at Valley High Country Club in Houston and Red finally got a little break. In the early 1980s, Rachel got sick and struggled with cancer. Red worked all day and then came home to care for her. In 1984 she died and Red retired from United Auto.

Being a hard worker all his life, retirement didn't agree with him and he took a job working at the Rest Area by Lock and Dam 7. He really enjoyed that job, meeting folks from all over the world who traveled to see the Mississippi River. It was around this time that he was lucky to have a relationship with Viola Kerns from Dakota. They had many great adventures and a good life together for several years until Viola passed on. In 2006, Red turned 85 and was forced to retire again from the rest area. Still not ready to slow down, he sold his home in Dresbach and moved to Galesville with his granddaughter Julie and her husband Duane. This retirement agreed with him as he was back on a small hobby farm doing all kinds of tasks he did as a kid. He thoroughly enjoyed his time living with them. After six years he developed dementia and required additional care and admission to the nursing home. He did well there, again taking on tasks and even calling the numbers for afternoon Bingo games and showing the staff his singing and dancing moves, to their delight.

For his 97th birthday, he was fortunate to be able to go on the Freedom Honor Flight to Washington, DC. He has been on many trips during his life, but this one was special as he went with his grandson, Dave, and it was his first ever ride on an airplane. Thank you, Freedom Honor Flight, for making this awesome memory for him. Red passed away on November 6, 2020 from COVID-19. He was 98 years old. He lived a good life and was very much ready to "move on". He was quite a character in Dresbach often seen sitting in his front yard in the lawn chair or pushing the lawn mower. He kept all of us town kids in line, one year plowing us an ice skating rink on the river close to shore for all of us to play on. He was really handy with tools and did many of his own repairs. He also liked to hunt and fish, going up to his brother Adrian's farm or to his niece Betty’s farm for deer season, a favorite activity for years. In the summer, his brother Emil would come home from Illinois and Red would go fishing with Emil and his son Wes at old haunts from their youth. Whatever they caught Rachel cooked, there were many backyard fish fries during those summers. Red also had a project that was dear to his heart in Dresbach, that was expanding the cemetery. He and several others from town spent many hours clearing the additional area and developing that land for burials. He was very proud of that effort.

Red is survived by his grandchildren, Julie (Duane) Strelow, Kerry Olafson, Doug Voss, Dave Voss and Russell (Maggie) Voss; nieces, Betty Ruedy and Kathy Blood; nephews, Bob Roraff, Adrian "Butch" Roraff Jr., and Roger Roraff; his brother Adrian's children; niece, Pat and nephews, George Roraff, Jim Roraff, Joe Roraff and Denny Roraff, his brother August's children, and Wes Roraff, his brother Emil's son. Red also had many great and great great grandchildren. Red had special friends from Dresbach over the years and traveled back to visit them frequently after his move to Galesville. Mike and Jeanie Kerns of Dakota, Pete Peterson (Pete's Bar), Tom and Renee Donaldson and the entire Nissakle family, Bill (Susan), Dick (Marcia), and Sandy (Gerry) Miller and many others that passed on before him.

Red was preceded in death by his parents; all of his brothers and sisters; his wife, Rachel and their two children; and one granddaughter Lorna Bokor.

Special Thank you to everyone who took such great care for him at Trempealeau County Healthcare Center in Whitehall while he was there. Sandy Miller called him an icon of Dresbach and he truly was, he loved that town. He was known by most everybody in Dresbach and Dakota. Her brother Dick said he outlived all of the old timers from town, not quite all, but most. Watching a lot of his family and friends pass on ahead of him he often said to me that "God must have forgotten him" but just like in the Grumpy Old Man movie, No Gramp, God didn't forget you. I love you Gramp and thank you for all you did for me.

A graveside service will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 19 ^th , 2020 at Oakland Cemetery in Dresbach, MN. Due to the restrictions from COVID-19, there will be a celebration of life at a later date.