Obituary of T. Milan Bragg

A funeral service for T. Milan Bragg, age 86, of West Okoboji, will be held Saturday, May 27, 2017 at 10:30 AM at Turner Jenness Funeral Home in Spirit Lake. Visitation will begin one hour prior to the service at the funeral home. Burial will be at Silver Lake Cemetery in Lake Park. Thomas Milan Bragg, Jr., was born March 30, 1931, along with his twin brother, Charles Milton Bragg, to Thomas Milan Bragg, Sr. and Lucille R. (Parks) Bragg, at Randolph, Nebraska. The family moved to Lake Park, Iowa in 1932, when T.M. Bragg purchased the Lake Park News. Milan and Milton attended the Lake Park Consolidated School, graduating with the class of 1949. Milan and his twin brother enrolled at Buena Vista College in Storm Lake, Iowa and attended classes through June 1951, when they enlisted in the United States Navy. They served on the USS Princeton (CV-37) for two years during the Korean War. They later served on the USS Comstock (LSD-19) for 1 1/2 years and were then separated until they were discharged in 1955. At discharge, they had achieved the rank of Petty Officer 2nd Class Radarman. In the fall of 1955, Milan enrolled at the University of Iowa in Iowa City and graduated in the spring of 1957 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Following graduation, he took a job with his father in the Lake Park News office. He was employed by the Lake Park News until it was sold in August 1963. He then worked for the Lake Park News, The Sibley Gazette-Tribune and the Ocheyedan Press. On June 6, 1964, he was united in marriage to Sharon Kay Basler at the Methodist Church in Lake Park. The couple made their home for a short period of time in Tyndall, South Dakota. In January 1965, they moved to George, Iowa where they purchased the Lyon County News. They are the parents of two sons, Thomas Milan Bragg III and Kirby William Bragg. In May 1988, Milan retired from the newspaper business and the couple moved to their cottage in Methodist Camp in Spirit Lake, now known as Monarch Cove. During the first few years of retirement, Milan remodeled the cottage into a year-round home. In his retirement years, Milan enjoyed traveling, especially to numerous Navy reunions. He was a member of the USS Princeton Veterans Association, Silver Lake Lodge 527 in Lake Park and American Legion Post 23 in Spirit Lake. Milan passed away May 20, 2017 at Heritage Landings in West Okoboji at eighty-six years of age. Preceding him in passing are his father and mother; wife, Sharon; brother, Frederick Marvin; sister, Marlys Jeanine Bragg Hilliard. Survivors are two sons, Tom Bragg and his wife, Amy of Ely, Iowa and Kirby Bragg and his wife, Stacey of Danbury, Iowa; granddaughters, Tara and Ashtyn Bragg; step-grandchildren, Thomas Sisco, Lindsey Sisco, David HermsenWhite and Matthew HermsenWhite; twin brother, C. Milton Bragg and his wife, Vicky of Spearfish, South Dakota; sister, Marcille Maassen of Missouri; two nieces, two nephews and several cousins.