James Robert Fawbush

James Robert Fawbush, 69, of Moorhead, MN, passed away at Sanford Palliative Care Unit on Saturday, June 17, 2017. Jim was born on March 16, 1948 in Fargo, ND to James and Maxine Fawbush. He graduated from Moorhead High School in 1966 and married Merryll “Casey” Stengel, the love of his life, in 1975, in a little green house in south Moorhead. Together, they raised three children and countless cats and dogs.

Jim worked in general construction until landing a job in maintenance at Concordia College, where he completed a B.A. in English in 1983. He went on to earn a B.S. in journalism from Minnesota State University Moorhead in 1995. Jim played trumpet, fiddle, congas, harmonica, and guitar, and had a natural talent for singing the blues. He was a published poet and song lyricist. His poetry chapbook “Great Grandpa Nettestad was Blind” 1973 was chronicled in “Contemporary American Poetry.” Jim and his brother Jeff Fawbush wrote and recorded “Oh Hjemkomst, Ship of Dreams” in 1982. The two brothers collaborated again to create “The Greatest Friend,” a children’s video songbook, in 2016. Jim’s short story “’57 Chevy” was published in ART RIOT magazine in 2013.

As a reporter and photographer for the Hawley Herald for nearly 20 years, Jim captured and cataloged, via hundreds of news stories and feature articles, the hard-working and family-centered members of the community.

He will be remembered for his kindness, his love of life and of people, of sharing and laughing and singing and making music, of quietly contemplating his next poem or prose piece and the personal delight when he felt the right words had come together creating the right picture for others to share.

Jim once quipped, “If John Muir’s quote, ‘The power of imagination makes us infinite,’ is true, then you are stuck with me for a really long time.”

He is survived by wife Casey Fawbush, daughter Vanessa Fawbush Holmgren and spouse Jason Holmgren Portland, OR, stepson Dane Borg and spouse Benjamin Hazelton Portland, OR, stepdaughter Julie Borg Moorhead, his first wife and mother of Vanessa, Cheryl Gutaw Warren Beaverton, OR, and grandchildren Zoe Jane and Alexander James Holmgren and Carter Borg Culley. He is also survived by sister Jane Tandberg and spouse John Tandberg Moorhead, brother Jeff Fawbush Minneapolis, and sister Julie Rohrer and spouse Mark Rohrer Fargo, and six nieces and nephews.

How Do You Carry On?
By Jim Fawbush

Sun, how do you carry on
With your trip on long legs wrapped in music
Only to collapse in your dark room?

Jesus, how do you carry on
Hitchhiking on the road to your mother
With that souvenir hand basket packed with psalms?

Little brown bird, how do you carry on
While crying from bushes you imagine your cage?
Please sing branch to branch in the poetry of my death.

A memorial service will take place on July 21, 10 a.m. to noon, at Wright Funeral Home in Moorhead.