Dennis Losness, who started a 50-year newspaper career working at the Free Press, died Saturday, Dec. 16, in Hudson, WI, after a battle with cancer.
Jerald Dennis Losness was born on Oct. 26, 1932, to Oscar and Solveig (Fause) Losness.
His family moved to Amery, WI, in 1940 and he graduated from Amery High School in 1950.
He married Sandra Fraipont at St. Joseph Catholic Church on Feb. 13, 1958. He said, "The smartest thing I ever did was to marry Sandra."
His 50-year newspaper career included tours with the Amery Free Press, Cornell (Wis.) Courier, Duluth Herald and News-Tribune, Wausau Daily Herald, Wisconsin State Journal and St. Paul Dispatch and Pioneer Press. His career spanned the last days of hand-set and Linotype-generated type to the modern computer and pagination era.
Losness began his newspaper career as a high school freshman at the Free Press, learning to set movable type and gaining essential journalistic skills. He later served as sports writer, sports editor and then editor of the weekly.
In November 1958, Losness became editor and publisher of the Cornell (WI) Courier, a weekly paper he owned with Palmer Sondreal, who was the owner of the Free Press for decades. Following five years in Cornell, he began his daily newspaper career at the Duluth newspaper, where he worked as a reporter and copy editor.
His next stop was the St. Paul newspapers, where he had a 20-year career. He had several editing positions in St. Paul, including wire editor, assistant city editor, copy desk chief and assistant managing editor. He ended work there as the last managing editor of the evening Dispatch.
While in St. Paul, he also served as assistant director of Ridder News Service for two years. In 1976 he covered the Republican National Convention in Kansas City and the Democratic National Convention in New York City.
He went on to work as a copy editor at the Wausau (WI) Daily Herald and the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison. He retired in 1996.
He retired to his hometown of Amery, WI, where spent his retirement years researching, writing and editing histories of his family and Amery High School sports.His histories of Amery High School sports merited a 2011 Distinguished Service Award from the Wisconsin Athletic Directors Association.


Seven children were born to this union, all of whom survive. They are: Jon (Susan) Losness, Rochester, MN.; Julie (Kevin) Prax, Cottage Grove, MN, Ann (Jim) Hogan, Plymouth, Iowa; Paula (Dan) McDonald, Hudson, Wis.; Peter, Denver; Katie (Evan) Larson, Austin, Minn., and Tom (Mary) Losness of Maplewood, Minn.
Also surviving is his sister, Bonita Morse (Bob Overman) of Savage, Minn.; and 20 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his father, Oscar, and mother, Solveig; wife Sandra; brother, Ronald; and grandson Michael Hogan.
Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. on Thursday at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Amery, with visitation one hour prior.