Duane Benson, executive director of the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation who counted legislator, cattle rancher and professional football player among his many roles, died this weekend after a five-year battle with cancer.
Benson, 73, died Saturday at the Methodist campus of Mayo Clinic Hospital in Rochester of a cancer that began in his tonsils and spread to his spine and prostate, his daughter said Monday.
Through nearly four decades in public life, Benson was universally respected as smart, savvy and measured, with a mischievous sense of humor. A longtime resident of Lanesboro in southeastern Minnesota, he played to perfection the role of the sly, country bumpkin.