Remembering The Hortmans: Lives devoted to service and community

Two lights guided the lives and actions of former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark: service and community.

Those who knew the couple repeated this theme in remembrances at a funeral mass Saturday morning at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis that was attended by former President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Gov. Tim Walz and his wife, Gwen, and numerous other politicians, along with family, friends, and community members.

The Hortmans were slain on June 14 at their home in Brooklyn Park in an attack believed to be politically motivated.

“Two lights guided their life: service and community,” said Father Daniel Griffith, who presided over the mass. “Melissa manifested a servant’s heart in her work as a legislator.”

The couple lived a life devoted to community, he said. They loved having visitors to their home, which was jokingly called “The Hortman Hotel,” he said because everybody was welcome. They hosted monthly gourmet dinner groups with their law school friends and Mark held monthly card games. The couple also loved sitting on the deck of their home together for happy hour, he said.

“They shared a love for travel,” Griffith said. “Mark was a hobbyist with a curious mind” who loved mountain biking and making furniture.

“His children talked of his big smile, cheesy dad jokes, and having an indomitable spirit.”

Griffith also talked about Gilbert, a dog the couple had taken in to train as a service dog, but it became very attached to Melissa.

When it came time for him to become a service dog and leave the family, “Melissa was wrecked and emotional,” Griffith said. “The family wonders if maybe Gilbert failed the assignment on purpose so he could head back to the Hortman house.”

In speaking of the Hortman’s children, Colin and Sophie, Griffith called them a “beautiful reflection of their humanity, compassion and their sense of justice in every way, in their intelligence.”

He spoke about the statement that the Hortman’s children, Sophie and Colin, released after their parent’s were killed:

“Plant a tree, pet a dog, try a new hobby like Mark would have, stand up for justice and peace. The best way to honor their parents is to do something to make our community just a little better for someone else,” he said. “Mark and Melissa lived this reality.”

Gov. Tim Walz gave an eulogy after the mass, listing some of the ways that the couple made the state of Minnesota better, saying Melissa Hortman was the most consequential speaker in Minnesota history, a close friend, a mentor to him and the most talented lawmaker he had ever met.

Millions of Minnesotans now have better lives because Melissa and Mark chose public service and politics, he said.

“More kids in pre-K. Fewer in poverty. More kids in schools with the tools and teachers they need. Fewer with hungry students. More trees in the ground and clean energy coursing through the grid. Fewer roads and bridges at risk of failure,” Walz said. “More people in safe and secure housing. Fewer worrying about managing how to care for their loved ones. That’s the legacy that Mark and Melissa will leave behind for all Minnesotans.”

Walz painted a picture of the domestic life the couple led, mentioning Mark’s love of shooting pool and Melissa’s love of her garden where she “fussed over her lilies like they were a wayward member of that caucus,” he joked, eliciting laughter from the pews.

Their life outside of politics and public service took place in their kitchen where Mark “fed his sourdough starter, Melissa mixed the margaritas and baked the cakes and Gilbert sat there begging for scraps and the sound of that kitchen filled with laughter.”

Walz said Mark was proud of Melissa and her biggest supporter.

He said that the couple were an example of how people were at the heart of all politics.

“It’s easy sometimes to forget, for all its significance, that politics is just people,” he said. “That’s all it is. Just a bunch of human beings trying to do the best they can. Melissa understood that better than anybody I knew. She saw the humanity in every single person she worked with. And she kept things focused on the people she served. Her mission was to get as much good done for as many people as possible. It was the golden rule instilled in her by her father and the passion to serve she learned from her mother.”

Mark’s focus was people too, Walz said and he was a beloved colleague and friend to so many people.

Griffith said that the Hortman’s children gave him permission to speak about how the guiding principles the Hortmans lived by were “antidotes to our present afflictions” as a state and nation.

“Here in Minnesota we have been the ground zero place, sadly for racial injustice, the killing of George Floyd just miles from our church today,” Griffith said. “And now we are the ground zero place for political violence and extremism. Both of these must be decried in the strongest possible terms as they are a threat to human dignity and indeed, our democracy.

“Sadly racial disparity, some of the most acute in the country,  persists here in Minnesota with modest gains in some areas and widening gaps in others over the last five years. But friends, Minnesotans, this can be ground zero place for restoration and justice and healing, but we must work together and there is much more work to be done. Your presence here is a sign that we can do that work,” he said.

Melissa Hortman is the first woman to lie in state at the Capitol. It was also the first time a couple has lain in state at the Capitol, and the first time for a dog.

Before the Hortmans, 19 people had been accorded the honor. The first was Civil War veteran William Colvill in 1905.

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