Bryan “Tiny” Landwehr is this year’s Kraut N Wurst grand marshal. Still a farm boy at heart, his home in the city of Watkins is bordered by cornfields.
Staff photo by Jean Doran Matua.
By Jean Doran Matua, Editor
“I really didn’t expect it,” Bryan “Tiny” Landwehr told us Monday. The Watkins Fire Department votes each year for a grand marshal for their annual Kraut N Wurst festival. At only 63, he didn’t think the honor would come so early.
Landwehr has been on just about every committee and club in town, except the Lions. “I was already going to four meetings a week, and I just couldn’t do one more,” he said. He has been president of the Watkins Chamber, served on the Watkins Fire Department, Sportsman’s Club, snowmobile club, and more, all while operating TC’s Bar then owning his own gravel-hauling trucking company, all while also being a union equipment operator. He’s currently retired from all but his trucking company.
Landwehr grew up on a farm, the fourth of five boys that were followed by five girls. He graduated from Kimball Area High School in 1973. He has two adult children, Melody and Brad, and four grandchildren (Brad’s kids Henry, George, Truman and Rosie) the oldest of whom is 10.
In his spare time (which he has more of now) he enjoys hunting and fishing. He and his girlfriend Lynette had just returned from a fishing trip to Lake of the Woods, and he’s heading back up there again soon. He looks forward to grandson Henry joining them hunting this year for the first time with the youth hunt.
Two years ago, Landwehr was living in the townhomes across from Hilltop Health Care Center in Watkins. He was in his bathtub when the tornado hit a few doors down. Within two months, he was moved into his new home in the Faber Edition.
Landwehr will ride in the Kraut N Wurst parade Saturday morning at 10:30 in Jack Loch’s Mustang convertible. You’ll catch him on the first shift at the hamburger stand right after that, too.