Thomas Richard “Dick” Jelinek passed away peacefully at his home in Pequot Lakes after a short illness with stomach cancer on Friday, May 1, 2020.
Dick was born on Jan. 3, 1938 in Austin to Tom and Christy Jelinek. Dick was raised in Blooming Prairie where he resided most of his life. He graduated from Blooming Prairie High School in 1956 and loved working on the reunion committee.

Mary Jean Kaplan, 90, of Owatonna, died Saturday, May 16, 2020 at Owatonna Hospital.
Mary was born Feb. 2, 1930 in Nevada, Iowa the daughter of Henry and Margaret (Cartin) Kotlaba.  She was also baptized in Nevada. They moved to Blooming Prairie in June 1930 where Mary attended school from 1936-48. She received her college education from Winona State University and graduated in 1950 with a degree in elementary education. 

Ramon Salinas, age 59, of Blooming Prairie, passed away peacefully at his home, surrounded by many loving family on Saturday, May 9, 2020, after a four-year battle with cancer.
Ramon was a fighter and fought cancer on his terms. His family and friends supported him through the battle of cancer. He entered heaven as a champion. 

The jury is still out on what exactly will happen to our communities in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the worst public health crisis in more than a century.
Some communities are already facing the fallout of the coronavirus infiltrating into their normal way of life. Weekly newspapers are shutting down in the face of the pandemic.

Memorial Day is only four days away. However, the usual Memorial Day celebrations will be limited and the Boy Scouts of America will not be placing small American flags at the nation’s cemeteries to commemorate the fallen soldiers of the various America wars and battles.
Once again, COVID-19 is claiming yet another American tradition.

Jean was born on Feb. 27, 1933, in Albert Lea, the daughter of John and Emelia (Untiedt) Horan.  She grew up in rural Geneva- Hartland area with three brothers and two sisters. She attended school in Albert Lea.

There are eight seniors on the Triton track and field team that lost their last high school season. To do our part to help make up for that loss we are going to give each of them the spotlight one more time.
Kendra Petersohn
            Kendra competes in sprints, hurdles and relays for the Cobras and is a six-year letter-winner.

Chase O’ Connor had a prolific varsity wrestling tenure at Kasson-Mantorville High School. He was an All-State selection two times, an All-Conference honoree two times, earned three varsity letters and helped the KoMets defeat Simley for the 2013 state team title.

Students from kindergarten to high school have lost the ability to go to school and see their friends, but something they can still do is read and now thanks to the Kasson Public Library (KPL) they’re able to do even more reading.
The KPL staff did that by distributing free books at one of the five Kasson-Mantorville school meal pick-up sites each day last week.