obituaries

On Valentine's Day, Gordon Orlo Anderson sat down with one of his grandchildren to record his memories of World War II, including his role in D-Day, the invasion of Normandy.

A month later, recalled his daughter Linda Schack, of Cologne, Minn., "he started having difficulty connecting his thoughts" as he battled cancer. On Thursday, he died at the Coon Rapids home of another daughter, Doreen Anderson. He was 88 and had returned to his native Twin Cities a couple of months before his death after living for several years in McGregor, Minn.

The timing of a class project recorded on a cell phone camera was entirely coincidental -- and leaves his family immensely grateful.

Before that conversation, said granddaughter Jacelyn, a sophomore at Bemidji State University, "I knew some of it, but not a lot. I didn't have that much of an idea of how much he went through."

Drafted into the Navy at the age of 21 out of north Minneapolis, he served for four years. Overseas, he started in Algeria, worked off the coast of Italy, and then joined the Allied invasion forces in England. On D-Day, his job was to ferry the invading troops onto Omaha Beach.

"My grandfather said that it was hard watching the soldiers get off the ship because some of them didn't even make it to shore," Jacelyn wrote. "He said that the water was blood-red and the bodies were floating up to shore."

After the war, Anderson became a skilled craftsman in the construction industry, living in Crystal and working as a lather for 50 years. He helped build homes during the postwar building boom, and later worked on larger projects, said his son Jeff, of St. Francis, who entered the same line of work.

"He did big, fancy ceilings in churches, helped build hospitals, worked on big downtown buildings like the IDS Tower," Jeff said.

It was a civilian life of patient routine, but a life marked by traumatic memories.

"Some of the things that you remember, just even after 60-65 years, it will come back to life just like it was yesterday," he told his granddaughter last winter.

Linda said her father talked more with his sons about the war than with his daughters, and for them in particular, watching graphic World War II movies such as "Saving Private Ryan" was a revelation. "For us, watching it, it's like -- 'You've got to be kidding me. Seriously?'"

"There is no way you could live a life like that for four years," he once said, "and not remember that all your lifetime."

Anderson's wife, Lee, died in 2004. In addition to Linda, Doreen and Jeff, he is survived by another son, Michael, of Crystal; 10 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. today at Glen Haven Memorial Gardens, Crystal, with private family services and interment at Fort Snelling National Cemetery.