lit a candle 1d ago90 years old, died in a care center in Marshall. My grandmother went the same way last year, different state, same quiet ending. Never knew her name till today, D21, eight counties for a decade. Rest.
Their story
Arlene Lesewski was an American politician and insurance agent from Marshall. She represented southwestern Minnesota in the Minnesota Senate for ten years, from 1993 to 2003. A Republican, she served District 21, a largely rural seat spanning eight counties, and made the revival of rural Minnesota her central cause. She…
Arlene Lesewski was an American politician and insurance agent from Marshall. She represented southwestern Minnesota in the Minnesota Senate for ten years, from 1993 to 2003. A Republican, she served District 21, a largely rural seat spanning eight counties, and made the revival of rural Minnesota her central cause. She died in Marshall on 22 October 2026, aged 90.
She was born Arlene Julia Dau on 12 April 1936 in Lyon County, Minnesota. She attended Lynd High School and later studied at Southwest State University in Marshall. Before entering the legislature she worked as an independent insurance agent in Marshall.
Lesewski first ran for the state Senate in 1990 as an Independent-Republican in District 27, losing the general election with almost 45 percent of the vote. In 1991 she was appointed to the Minnesota Commission on Reform and Efficiency, a state body reviewing the workings of government, and served on it until 1994. In 1992 she won the newly drawn District 21 with 51.8 percent of the vote, and she was re-elected in 1996 with 54.6 percent and in 2000 with 48 percent of the vote in a crowded field. Her district covered Lincoln, Lyon, Murray, Nobles, Pipestone, Redwood, Rock and Yellow Medicine counties.
In the Senate she sat on committees for agriculture and rural development, jobs, energy and community development, transportation, taxes and education. The Legislative Reference Library lists her special concerns as revitalizing rural Minnesota through job creation and strengthening agriculture, along with the business climate, transportation, health care and education. In her final term her committee work also took in higher education, workforce education, property taxes and telecommunications, energy and utilities. She served 3,654 days in the legislature and did not stand again in 2002, leaving office in January 2003.
Lesewski was married to Thomas Lesewski, and they had three children. She remained a resident of Marshall for the rest of her life. She died on Thursday, 22 October 2026, at the Avera Morningside Heights Care Center in Marshall, according to her obituary from Hamilton Funeral Home. A public committal service was planned for 14 November 2026 at Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Marshall.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, Minnesota Historical Election Archive and Hamilton Funeral Home. Wikipedia ↗
Photos
1Senator Arlene J. Lesewski, official portrait for the 1993 to 1994 legislative session
by People Forever
Sorry about your grandmother.