Foley, Minnesota
Dale Lease, of Foley, passed away peacefully in his sleep April 21, 2025, after a 10-month battle with Stage 4 cancer.
Funeral service was April 26, at New Life Church, in Foley. Visitation was April 25, at the Foley Funeral Home and Saturday at the Church. Burial took place at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Onamia after a Lunchon. Service with dignity provided by Foley Funeral Home.
Dale Francis Lease was born Sept. 14, 1946, to Henry and Mathilda “Tilly” (Ortman) Lease in Brainerd. Dale was the third child born of 15 children, but the first to be born after his father returned from World War II.
Dale grew up on the family farm in Onamia, raising crops and milking cows. Life was hard, but it was simple. In the new post-World War II era. It was unheard of to hire out work; everyone learned to do the job themselves. If you could not, you turned to neighbors for help or traded services to get things done. Dale became skilled in many trades as a young man, and those abilities served him well throughout his life. Hunting was a big event in the Lease family, and Dale was no exception. It was a hobby, but even more so, it was a way to help feed a large family. Fishing and trapping were also common pastimes for the Lease boys, and Dale took part in those, too.
Dale and Muriel Ryan were united in marriage Dec. 11, 1965, in Milaca. They had three daughters: Rebekah “Bek”, Brenda and Melinda “Mindy.” They were married 12 years.
Dale and Nancy Tryggestad were united in Marriage July, 07, 1979, in Wyoming, Minnesota. They had eight children: Dale Jr., Sarah, Mary, Henry, Emily, Paula, Caroline and Nathan; and one stillborn baby, Hannah. They were married 22 years.
Dale was married to JoMary Frank March 25, 2006, until her death in Aug. 2011.
During his life, Dale held several different jobs. He drove an 18-wheeler, delivering silo blocks for Westman Silo in Princeton, along with delivering various long distance cargo throughout the lower 48 states. Dale also worked for Ford Motor Co. in St. Paul as a welder on the truck assembly line, which is where he met Nancy. When living in Onamia, Dale ran the Lease Family Lawn Service in the Onamia and surrounding Mille Lacs Lake areas. He had also driven the bus for Youth With a Mission from Minnesota to Monterrey, Mexico for many mission trips, sometimes with his family.
Anyone who knows Dale probably knows that he liked to talk. He had the ability to strike up a conversation anywhere with anyone, sometimes to the embarrassment of his kids. If you talked with him long enough, Dale would inevitably give you a history lesson about something that he was passionate about: his father as a “POW in Hitler’s war camp,” how people lived and made things in the Wild West, and how farming equipment and buildings have developed since the time on his childhood farm. Dale enjoyed metal detecting in his spare time, and reading Reminisce magazines, history books, and local newspapers.
Dale really enjoyed spending time with family, playing cards or shaking dice. He loved playing 40 Below, King’s Corner, Chinese Elimination and Farkle/ 10,000. He took pride in teaching his grandkids how to play; yet, even though he helped them during the game, Dale almost always would win.
Dale will be remembered most for his generous spirit and kind heart. If he had something you needed, he offered it without hesitation. If you needed a hand and he could help, he always would. What mattered most to Dale was time with family—he often traveled out of state just to visit and be with those he loved. In the final months of his life, he fought hard to hold on to those moments and spend every possible day with the people who meant the most to him.
Dale is preceded in death by his parents, Henry and Tilly Lease; brother, Kevin Lease; sister, Judie Johnson; wife, JoMary Lease; and infant daughter Hannah.
Dale is survived by four brothers and eight sisters; former wife, Muriel; former wife, Nancy; sons, Dale Jr (Nadine) Lease, Henry (Salvation) Tryggestad, Nathan (Kiana) Lease; daughters, Bek (Michelle) Lease, Brenda (Kevin) Thurmes, Mindy (Scott) Schroeder, Sarah (Barry) Gilmore, Mary (Jay) Silverman, Emily (Ray) Smith, Paula (Vito) Lattanzi and Caroline Lease. He is also survived by 35 grandchildren, one great-granddaughter and many nieces, nephews, family and friends.
F-18-1B
