George James Pranaitis, age 89, of Eveleth, Minn., died Sunday, May 15, 2016, at Essentia Health Virginia Care Center. He was born August 28, 1926, in Collinsville, IL, the son of Joseph and Eva Pranaitis. He graduated from Collinsville High School. George was united in marriage to Fran Stone in 1948, and following her death was married to Jean Decorsey until her death. A Veteran of the US Army, George served during WWII.
George worked as a manager for JC Penney, and was in fact hired by Mr. Penney himself. He managed stores in Illinois, Indiana, South Dakota, and Minnesota. He was the manager of the JC Penney store in Winner for many years.
He assisted his daughter, Debbi at Little Italy in Gilbert. After his retirement and up until the time of his death, George worked for Green View as a maintenance man for the DNR office in Eveleth. His greatest achievement was building 838 Bluebird houses and 2393 Wood Duck houses that were used on private and state lands and were donated to various wildlife organizations.
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