Tim Walz's upbringing in rural Nebraska seemed idyllic. Then came tragedy.

VALENTINE, Neb. — Beyond the Badlands, deep within the undulating landscape of the Sandhills, this speck of a city where Tim Walz spent a decade of his childhood rises abruptly out of the vastness.

It is as remote as anywhere in the Midwest, an island of civilization in a Rhode-Island-size county with just 6,000 people and 184,000 beef cows. But as Walz entered his freshman year of high school, his life seemed storybook large.

Walz played football, basketball and golf, sometimes riding in a bus hundreds of miles to compete against other schools, classmates said. He enjoyed a life of stability and privilege as a child of James Walz, who had one of the most important jobs in town as school superintendent, and Darlene Walz, a homemaker. Within the confines of Valentine, at least, Tim Walz had it all.

But after his first year at Valentine High School, Walz was gone — headed to an even more remote, smaller community called Butte, where his mother’s family had lived for generations.

Much later, friends would learn why: His father was seriously ill with lung cancer, and the family needed help to care for him.

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