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The small Minnesota town still recovering from last August’s floodwaters now mourns the life and legacy of the former two-term mayor who was honored as Mr. Rushford in 2005.
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The loss is deep, friends and family said, because little went on in Rushford that 79-year-old Morken didn’t have a hand in. He was a leader at his church, city hall, the area business association, bike trail committee, Masonic lodge, Lions Club and American Legion.
“It’s ironic. This is Rushford’s Frontier Days, and this is the week he left,” said former employer Larry Dahl of Dahl’s Auto Works in Rushford. “It’s probably fitting that he left at this time because he was always promoting Rushford.”
Morken helped form the Rushford Historical Society to save Rushford’s former railroad depot from being torn down. He also inspired a veterinarian to write several volumes on Rushford’s history.
“He was a walking Rushford encyclopedia,” Rushford Area Historical Depot and Museum president Ann Spartz said. “You wouldn’t believe the things that could come off the top of his head. He led town tours and could relate who lived here, who lived there and what they did.”
Morken was born and raised along the Root River and valleys of Rushford. Outgoing and a perfectionist, he loved collector cars. His first car was a 1948 Plymouth convertible he decked out with 24 running lights and a tractor light underneath.
“He was always flamboyant,” his son Bruce Morken said. “He loved the limelight and had no embarrassment.”
The University of Minnesota recruited Al Morken, who graduated from Rushford High School in 1946 as an all-conference offensive lineman, to play football for the Gophers, but he never left town.
His father, Eno Morken, became ill and Morken stayed to help run the family car dealership E.G. Morken Service and Implement. He eventually took over the business in the late 1950s and sold it in 1969. He didn’t fully retire from selling cars until 1993.
Morken drove a school bus for a short stint. He was hailed down one May afternoon in 1947 to help pull a drowning boy from the Root River. He performed CPR on 4-year-old Ronald Hayes and carried him home, according to newspaper clippings.
“The young guy sent a card every year for 20 or 30 years,” Bruce Morken said.
His wife, Marlys, met Morken at a Winona roller rink, where a whirlwind courtship began. They married Dec. 16, 1950. He left the next month to serve two years in the U.S. Army during the Korean Conflict.
Morken was sitting on a Lions Club dunk tank for a Rushford Days celebration once 40 years ago when word came that Marlys had gone into labor with their fifth child and only daughter, Marsha Mehus, Bruce Morken said.
Close friend Elmer Duellman, who owns Elmer’s Auto and Toy Museum in Fountain City, Wis., said Morken made an impression on everyone. Their shared passion for history, Ford cars and antiques made the pair likely friends.
“He had a heart of gold,” Duellman said. “He’d come over here, and we’d go for breakfast. He liked everything I liked. Kind of a special person.”
Bruce Morken remembered he and his brothers would polish his father’s Ford Model A cars and push-start the engines of the convertible collection every spring. He also remembered his father being away at meetings and his dedication as mayor.
“He’d drive around town, up the bluffs and back every alley to see what needed to be done in town,” Bruce Morken said.
“As mayor, he was always going around speaking and promoting Rushford,” Dahl said. “He was a good promoter and excellent salesperson. He could sell, like they say, ice to an Eskimo.”
Morken always had big ideas for Rushford, Dahl said. Not everyone always agreed with him, but people knew Morken wasn’t afraid to speak his mind.
Morken often called Rushford “his town.” His friends say his enthusiasm for life and Rushford was contagious.
“He could talk people into stuff, because he was so enthused himself,” Marlys Morken said. “I think it was a salesman thing.”
Contact Amber Dulek at (507) 453-3513 or amber.dulek@lee.net.
