Harold R. &8220;Manny&8221; Petersen, 89, passed away Tuesday, July 3, 2007, at Episcopal Homes in St. Paul after a month of battling pneumonia.

Born March 20, 1918, to Walter and Anna (Sondergaarde) Petersen in Albert Lea, he spent his formative years first on Charles Street until the family moved permanently to 533 River Lane.

After graduating from Albert Lea High School in 1937, he worked at a variety of jobs until he found permanent employment as a welder and machine operator at Queen Stove Works, where he remained until he joined the war effort. He married Ann Wyant on Sept. 29, 1940. They met at the Albert Lea Hotel cafe where she worked.

Part of the greatest generation, Manny joined the Naval Service of the United States on July 17, 1943. He attended Metalsmith School in San Diego for four months, where his wife joined him. He later served on a ship in the Asiatic Pacific Area, including Hawaii, and was on board during the attack on Pearl Harbor, out of harm&8217;s way. He was honorably discharged on Dec. 13, 1945, as a Metalsmith Third Class (T), UNSR at Great Lakes, Ill.

After World War II, he worked with his wife at a fruit stand on South Broadway Avenue. Their only child was born in 1949. Manny used his GI Bill to attend Bartending School and began working at the old sixth floor Elks Club as a bartender for many years. He also used his metalsmith training to become a seasonal sheet metal worker, primarily in Iowa. He became a partner in a hardware store on 55th and France in Edina in 1957, and moved his wife and son to Bloomington, where they purchased a house at 11009 S. France Avenue and lived there for the next 30 years.

During the 1960s, Manny worked as a sporting goods manager for Donaldson&8217;s at Southdale. He was hired by the city of Edina in 1970 and worked at both of the liquor distributing locations there until he retired permanently in 1988 and moved to Austin for the next 12 years.

He was preceded in death by his wife in 1993, his parent, his only brother, Howard, and three sisters: Harriet, Helen and Mary Jane.

He is survived by his son, Steven &8220;K.&8221; Kent of St. Paul; his sister, Jeanette Satre of Aloha, Ore.; nieces: Marrilyn, Eloise, Trudy, Karen, Nancy and Laurie; nephews: Jon, Ronald, Michael, Randy and Steven; plus a special cousin, Virginia.

Funeral services are at 11 a.m. Saturday at O&8217;Halloran & Murphy Funeral Home, 575 S. Snelling Ave., St. Paul. Visitation is one hour prior to services Saturday. Interment will be at Fairview Cemetery, Oakland.