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Minnesota State University, Mankato
Minnesota State University, Mankato

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Francis Arens

Page address: https://web.mnsu.edu/voices/francisarens.html
Francis Arens
**Comments from Robert Arens...

My father was born June 4, 1909, on a farm a few miles south of Lismore, Nobles County, MN. All four of his grandparents had been born in Luxembourg. Francis was the 4th of 5 siblings that lived to adulthood. Francis and two of his siblings were legally blind. Francis married another grandchild of Luxembourgers, Henrietta Remackel, in 1933 and began farming. All Luxembourgers are Roman Catholic. Francis and Henrietta had 7 children that lived to adulthood. When none of us sons wanted to farm, he sold the farm and trained to be a masseur along with his blind younger brother. He died of an aortic aneuryism on April 20, 1991, in Midway Hospital in Saint Paul, MN.

Dad decided to record his life's memories because his cat died. He had wanted to record his cat's meow and submit it for the "Morris the Cat" commercials. But the cat died before he had the chance. So, he said he wanted to record his own "meow" before it was too late. Even though he was blind, in his dreams he was not blind.

**Robert Arens recorded over twenty hours of his father's reflections; we feature the first thirty minutes below.

Listen: Francis Arens

[MP3] Download: Francis Arens (34 MiB)

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