Southwest Baseball Coach of 36 Year Passed Away - Vern Boyer

Vern Boyer

Boyer, Vern Coach, age 90, of Minneapolis, rounded 3rd base and sprinted home on October 4, 2013; crossing home plate at 4:00 pm with the final and winning run in the game of his life. The RBI was awarded to his wife of 67-years, May.

For 36-years he gave freely of his time and talent to teach Southwest Minneapolis boys the finer points of baseball and life, and was rewarded in later years by the return of grownup men who always stopped to chat with him, while themselves enjoying outings at Lake Harriet with their families. For many senior summers he and his wife occupied their well-worn folding lawn chairs and shady spot along the SW shore where he regularly held court, entertaining and regaling any and all who would stop and listen to his stories, while May did her crossword puzzles.

He entered this world on November 7, 1922 under humble circumstances in New Orleans, Louisiana, as the fifth of ten children, born to Andre and Pearl Boyer, themselves émigrés from France and French-speaking Canada. During the Depression-era, with no work or viable prospects to sustain him in his hometown, and largely self-educated, at age 17 he kissed his mom and dad goodbye, joined the U.S. Navy and left on a six-year adventure that would take him around the world both before, during and after the hostilities of WWII. In 1945, he met his future wife at a dance in Notre Dame, Indiana, where both were serving their post-war duties. It was there they married in a dual ceremony with their best friends. After- wards, May convinced him to return with her to Hopkins, Minnesota, where he went to work for Minneapolis Moline and started one of the first slow-pitch softball leagues in the state.

It was during the post-war construction and industrial boom, that they settled in the Linden Hills neighborhood of SW Minnea-polis, where they spent the next six decades raising their own family, mentoring ballplayers and grandkids, dancing, weekend partying with friends, arising before dawn to travel and scour about the city in discovery, and at each stop along the way dispensing homespun advice to any who would listen, whether asking or not.

Preceded in death by his father and mother; all brothers and sister. Survived by sons, Jim (Audrey Dammer) and John; daughter, Barbara (Brian); grandsons, Michael Oberg (Kristine), Sean Oberg (Sarah), five great-grandchildren, and the many hundreds of boys whom he coached and championed through the years. Vern and May will be interred at Ft. Snelling National Cemetery during a private family cer- emony, however a public celebration of their lives will take place at the Lake Harriet Masonic Lodge (4519 France Ave. S.) on Sunday, June 15, 2014 from 11 am to 2 pm. Remaining family, as well as all who knew them will be welcomed