Vernon Henry Soltau "Speed" was born August 31, 1928 in Windom, Minnesota to the late Henry and Sigrid (Beck) Soltau. Vernon received his education at Windom Public Schools. In 1951, Vernon attended Camp Rucker in Alabama for training camp for the Army National Guard. Upon returning home, Vernon started working at Toro where he retired 30 years later. Vernon did many odd jobs after retirement such as, driving veterans to VA appointments, driving cars back from auctions for GM dealer and hanging out at Don's Repair and Country Pride for many years. Vernon liked to hunt, fish, spending time with his dogs Bear and Duke, watching race cars, collecting pens, and watching the Minnesota Twins and the Vikings. His health started to decline in 2016 and that is when he became a resident at the Good Samaritan Society ~Sogge in Windom. He was a resident there until his passing on Friday, December 18, 2020 at the age of 92 years old. Preceding Vernon in death are his parents, Henry and Sigrid (Beck) Soltau; two sisters, Vera Langland and Betty Bigbee.