Leigh Harlan Lorenson

TRINITY, Texas — Leigh Harlan Lorenson, son of Ed and Ann Lorenson was born Sept. 13, 1933, in Wausa. He died May 9, 2024, in Trinity, Texas, at the age of 90. Leigh grew up on a farm east of Wausa, with two sisters. He was raised and confirmed in the Lutheran church and graduated from Wausa High School in 1952. During those years, his love of building and inventing and his strong work ethic began. As with many people, Leigh’s life was written in two chapters. His first chapter began June 20, 1954, when he married Phyllis Tweedy at the Congregational Church in Hartington, and from that union raised three children, MeLea, Kevin and Kirk. During these early years, Leigh worked as a carpenter around the Yankton, S.D., area and Colorado until moving his family to Lincoln to begin work at Goodyear and Inland Shock Baton. During these years, he invented the collapsible Minnow Trap and attended trade shows selling his new product. Leigh and Phyllis moved their family to Texas in the late 1960s with the concrete company and then started his own cabinet making business. His kids watched their dad build a boat, tear apart and rebuild a Harley Davidson motorcycle, own and pilot a plane, build treehouses and playhouses, stilts, skateboards, go-carts and other memorable, fun things too numerous to mention.