Stan Nelson’s funeral Tuesday began with the Anoka High fight song performed by members of the marching band. This wasn’t a final request from Nelson, but his kids figured he would have approved of their idea.

“It’s sad for us,” daughter Cheryl said, “but it’s a celebration of his life.”

And what an extraordinary life he lived.

Nelson died Nov. 20 at age 105. He was believed to be the oldest living World War II veteran in Minnesota.

A commissioned officer in the Navy, Nelson participated in the D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. He ferried hundreds of soldiers to Omaha Beach on a Landing Craft Infantry that day.

He returned home from service and became a Hall of Fame high school football coach, and Hall of Fame character.

Nine days before his death, Nelson led the “Let’s Play Hockey” cheer at the Wild game, then drank a 16-ounce beer in a suite.

He lived by himself in his home until the final few months. He loved going to the casino to play bingo and blackjack. He bought himself a riding lawn mower when he turned 99 (he talked the store into a financing plan).

He competed in golf at the National Senior Games at age 95. His son Dave served as his caddie and remembers his dad being nervous before each round.

Said Dave: “I’d go, ‘Dad, you’re 95. Let’s enjoy this.’”

Nelson worked out daily in the gym at his assisted living facility. He still could bend over at the waist, legs straight, and touch the ground.

“He would tell me, ‘Flexible people live long,’” said Cheryl, standing up to demonstrate the pose.

A child of the Great Depression, Nelson witnessed the world change in immeasurable ways that sometimes were perplexing. Such as the arrival of Siri. If a question came up in conversation, he’d yell, “Ask Google.”

His kids got him a device that enabled him to email his 10 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren, but that “turned into being an expensive clock because he never used it,” Cheryl said.

Nelson was still driving his car as a centenarian until his insurance company put the brakes on that.

“He kind of reverted into a teenager,” Cheryl said. “Dave would go over and say, ‘You can’t drive the car anymore.’ As soon as he’d leave, the garage door would go up. He’d take off.”

Cheryl put an AirTag in his car to track him.

A person doesn’t reach 105 years on Earth without leaving a trail of stories and memories for family members to retell.

Like the time Cheryl asked her dad to join her downhill skiing.

Nelson had never skied. Cheryl made it to the bottom of the hill and then waited and waited and waited. No sign of Dad, so she went back up and came down again. Nothing. She checked the First Aid tent and found her dad with a rip in the seat of his pants. Apparently, he found turns tricky and wound up in the woods.

“But he skied the rest of the day with me,” she said.

Dave proposed to his girlfriend as a senior in college. He had one semester left before graduation with no job lined up. The couple joined Dave’s parents at a restaurant to pop the big news about their engagement.

“He looked around and all he said was, ‘Love don’t pay the rent,’” Dave recalled.

Dave and wife Maureen still laugh about that one.

Athletics opened doors for the kid from Dawson, Minn., whose widowed mother sold the family farm and raised four kids on a restaurant job that paid $1 a day for an eight-hour shift.

Nelson earned 12 varsity letters at Augsburg College as a four-sport athlete: football, basketball, baseball and golf.

As football coach at Anoka High, he won the mythical state title in 1964 and coached five all-state quarterbacks.

Nelson’s wife Marcie, who died in 2011 after 64 years of marriage, washed the team’s uniforms after games and hung them to dry in their basement. She loved the quarterback sneak, her favorite play. She wished they called it 15 times a game.

Nelson wore the same coaching shirt throughout a 33-game winning streak that spanned four seasons. Marcie wore the same dress. Both got rid of that gameday attire once the streak ended.

“In dad’s career, 33 years, she never missed a game and dad missed one,” Dave said. “He had appendicitis.”

Sunday nights were film review for the entire family in the basement. A white bed sheet served as the screen. Dad worked the projector, scribbling notes from Friday’s game on a notepad, while the kids watched and ate popcorn.

Nelson was inducted into five different Halls of Fame, but his children stand as his greatest legacy.

Cheryl, the oldest, won Minnesota state Coach of the Year honors in two sports at Anoka and is a state champion and Hall of Fame coach herself. Same with Dave, a standout athlete at UMD, then winner of 267 games and two state championships with six Prep Bowl appearances in 36 seasons split between Blaine and Minnetonka.

Middle child Steve played linebacker for the New England Patriots for 14 seasons, made three Pro Bowls and is a member of the team’s Hall of Fame.

Their dad added a final recognition posthumously, an unofficial honor.

A retired cop helped with entertainment activities for residents at Nelson’s assisted living facility. He and Nelson became fast friends during Nelson’s short stay.

The man called the family after Nelson’s death to ask if he could keep Stan’s name tag hanging on his bedroom door. The Nelsons were honored.

“He goes, ‘He’s in my Hall of Fame,’” Dave said.

Stan Nelson made to 105. He impacted lives all the way to the end.