Farewell to an icon

Brian Ojanpa
The Free Press

MANKATO Sat, May 17 2008

— Among Rex Macbeth’s many wry musings upon life was this one:
“Ultimately, the number of people at your funeral will pretty much depend on the weather.”
Judging by the standing-room-only crowd at Woodland Hills Chapel on Monday, sunshine and blue skies ruled — literally as well as in tribute.
“This is one of the most remarkable people I’ve ever met,” eulogized western author John Koblas, one of several people who spoke at memorial services for Mankato icon Macbeth, who died Friday at age 71.
Macbeth, who succumbed to a rare bone marrow disease, was a philosopher, race-car driver, stand-up comic, public storyteller, Old West buff, and tire dealer of renown.
The public knew him for his rhyming and rustic radio and TV ads, but those were not the sum of his myriad parts.
Mankato psychologist George Komaridis, who knew Macbeth personally and professionally for 25 years, spoke about how Macbeth was bedeviled by deep philosophical issues, particularly as they related to his own mortality.
“He loved life so much that it was hard for him to contemplate that life is not forever,” Komaridis said. “We mulled over issues he brought up like two blind guys trying to figure their way out of a maze.”
Komaridis said Macbeth not only waived his doctor/client confidentiality privilege for the funeral, he insisted that his counselor be candid.
“Rex made it a point that I should say whatever the hell I wanted to say today.”
The service, neither traditional nor religious, included men in Old West garb, who served as pallbearers and joined other Old West re-enactors afterward in firing their sidearms in a graveside salute.
In the chapel, Macbeth’s cowboy hat rested atop his casket, which was fronted by a rack holding some of his vintage rifles and his six-gun holster.
His love of Minnesota outlaw history was boundless, his knowledge of it encyclopedic, said Koblas, who recalled his introduction to Macbeth.
“Whether I’d be in Northfield, Madelia, or wherever, people said, ‘You have to interview Rex Macbeth. I met him, we talked, and boy did I hit the jackpot.”
Macbeth planned out his own funeral, right down to the Old West “wanted poster” motif on the memorial service programs, which included one of his philosophical poems that ends thusly:
“Perhaps the secret I have found.
I’ll gladly share the treasure.
Just try each day
In your own way
First give, then get, some pleasure.”

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