Hundreds gather to honor former congressman Martin Sabo

MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) - Approximately 900 people attended the memorial service in Minneapolis Saturday for longtime former congressman Martin Olav Sabo. The “quiet giant” died Sunday at age 78.

Sabo served 28 years in the U.S. House of Representatives representing the state’s 5th Congressional District. Prior to that, he served 18 years in the Minnesota Legislature, where he was the Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives. He retired in 2006.

"He was always putting others first,” Julie Sabo said of her father at the service, held at Central Lutheran Church. "People were his family and you were his family.”

Memorials were donated to the Sabo Endowment Fund at Augsburg College and the Trinity Lutheran Congregation.

MARTIN SABO OBITUARY - Longtime Minnesota congressman Martin Sabo dies at 78