It took nearly a half-century, but the bullet that pierced the neck of Vance Skahen III when he was 14 years old eventually claimed the Eagan man's life.
Vance was washing dishes at the kitchen sink with one of his sisters in the family's home on the edge of Grand Island, Neb., in 1964, when he was felled by errant gunfire from a nearby cornfield.
The bullet struck Vance's spinal cord, and it was left in his neck. He never walked again.
He died Aug. 27 of complications related to the injury. He was 61.
Brother Michael Skahen, of Minneapolis, said the fateful shot from a .22-caliber rifle was fired by a teenager playing with friends. Vance Skahen knew the boy but never harbored ill will toward him, the brother said. Police ruled the shooting accidental.
"I was supposed to be the one washing dishes," said Valerie Hall, a sister of Vance's who lives in Burnsville.
Valerie explained that she and Vance swapped chores that day because Vance wanted to dash off to practice pole vaulting. That left Valerie to help do the laundry with a wringer washer, a more time-consuming job.
"I remember talking to him on the kitchen floor," Hall said.
