By Ed Shannon, staff writer

When the seven homes to the south of West Front Street and across from Euclid Avenue were demolished earlier this month, an interesting aspect of Albert Lea&8217;s past was also eliminated. As a part of this future expansion project for the Lou-Rich firm, a local street with a significant name was also eradicated.

The short street which served as the address for those seven homes during the past 87 or so years was designated as Prentice Avenue. It was named for Lee Prentice, the teacher at Albert Lea High School who organized and directed the very first high school band in Minnesota during 1912. This street&8217;s name also honored the memory of this American soldier who died during World War I in August 1918.

When the demolition project was completed, about the only item worth saving was the street sign. The Freeborn County Historical Museum asked the City Council if it could have this sign for future use in a display. At the City Council meeting on Monday evening, approval was given for this donation.

&8220;We plan to use the sign in our music display. After all, he&8217;s a part of our musical history,&8221; said the museum&8217;s executive director, Pat Mulso.

She added that will include an explanation with the former street sign to who Lee Prentice is and his part in creating the state&8217;s first high school band 96 years ago.

Lee Charles Prentice was born in Spring Grove, Wis., on Dec. 23, 1887. His parents moved to Fairmont, where he attended grade and high school. After graduation from Carlton College, he became a school teacher. And by the fall of 1912, he was on the faculty of Albert Lea High School.

Besides organizing the first high school band in the state that same year, &8220;Professor&8221; Prentice was the assistant football coach and also earned another distinction. According to the school&8217;s 1915 yearbook, the local high school band was the first group in the Midwest to have uniforms. This has been confirmed with the information written on a photo of the high school band in their new uniforms which was likely taken in the spring of 1914 and is now in the archives of the Freeborn County Historical Museum.

In the fall of 1914, Prentice moved back to Fairmont to become a journalist with the Sentinel newspaper. Also, by this time he had married Beth Brundin of Albert Lea.

On May 15,1917, about a month after the nation became involved in World War I, Prentice enlisted in the U.S. Army. He was in the first officer training camp organized at Fort Snelling and was commissioned as a second lieutenant on Aug. 15, 1917. Then he went to Camp Dodge, Iowa, and later volunteered to serve with the Army&8217;s aviation section.

After training near Austin, Texas, Prentice went overseas in March 1918. At that time many of the nation&8217;s aviation officers were being assigned to combat duty with French or British units. After more training in Great Britain, Prentice was assigned to the Bombing Section, 104th Squadron, Royal Flying Force.

During his second combat mission on Aug. 1, 1918, Prentice&8217;s aircraft was on a bombing mission near Metz in the Alsace-Lorraine region between France and Germany. The aircraft was shot down by German troops, but was observed gliding in for a landing instead of crashing behind enemy lines. There was hope the two crew members had survived and were prisoners of war.

Beth Brundin Prentice had returned to Albert Lea to live with her parents. She was notified in a telegram from the War Department a few days later that her husband was missing in action. The next few weeks became a time of anxiety for both the Brundin and Prentice families. Then, on Oct. 7, 1918, a telegram came from the nation&8217;s War Department informing Beth that her husband had been killed in action.

Prentice had been buried by the Germans. All the items he was carrying were later returned to his widow by the German Red Cross.

After the Armistice was signed, Prentice&8217;s body was reburied in an American military cemetery in northern France.

Now, where&8217;s the connection between Lee Prentice of Fairmont and the recently vacated Prentice Avenue here in Albert Lea? The answer can be found in the files of the Freeborn County Recorder&8217;s Office. His widow&8217;s parents, Axel G. and Ella Brundin, filed legal documents in November 1920, creating a new residential subdivision to the south of Front Street and just to the west of Madison Avenue. The only street in this specific part of the city, once the address for seven homes, was named Prentice Avenue. This became one of the city&8217;s shortest avenues.

It was given its designation in accordance with the local custom of labeling north-streets as avenues.

The students of Albert Lea High School dedicated the 1919 AhLaHaSa Yearbook to the memories of former teachers Lee Prentice and Lynton James, and former students Clarence Kranbell and Leo Carey, who were killed in action during World War I.

The people of Fairmont honored the memory of Lee Charles Prentice in two ways.

The Fairmont Sentinel in 1921 commented, &8220;So eminently did Lieutenant Prentice serve his country and so greatly esteemed was he in his home community that when the American Legion post was organized it was named in his honor.&8221; Thus, Lee Prentice Post 36 of the American Legion still perpetuates his memory in Fairmont.

In August 1921, this city conducted a memorial for Lt. Lee Charles Prentice.

His body was returned from France and buried for the third and last time next to his father in Fairmont&8217;s Lakeside Cemetery.