Mary Anne Sass tells about Larry

Hi Stan. It was so nice to receive your e-mail. Larry would have been thrilled to know that people still remembered him from Alexandria. I think one of the biggest disappointments in his life was that he wasn’t able to graduate with his class, having his family move to the twin cities for his senior year. Over the years he told me many stories about growing up in Alex and, as a rule, they were all about getting in and out of trouble. It seems that all the cops knew him by name.

Son is a peace officer

Larry and I met while we were both working at General Mills. He was at the James Ford Bell Research facility and I was at the General Office. We met at a coed bowling tournament in 1970 and got married in 1972. Three children followed: Erin in 1975, Carrie in 1978 and Joe in 1979. Erin is a stay-at-home Mom, Carrie works in downtown Minneapolis at a brokerage firm and Joe, ironically, is a police officer in West St. Paul.

All of the kids were very good athletes and we spent most of the next twenty years going to softball, baseball, basketball, football and hockey games. Also in 1974, Larry left General Mills and went into the furnace repair business with his Dad and brother. He was one of the few people around who still worked on oil furnaces and many of his customers have said they will really miss him.

Softball, fishing, putzing

Larry was an avid softball player and most of his friends to this day were guys he played ball with. As they all aged, and were too old for softball, they then turned to fishing. We were married on May 13th and little did I know that that would turn out to be fishing opener (I’m from Illinois) and that he would miss our last 20 anniversaries. His mom has a place up at Annandale and, after his father’s death, he spent most weekends in the summer up there fishing and putzing.

His job allowed him to pretty much take the summers off. That is where he was when he died, at the lake fixing his mom’s roof. As you can see from the pictures, the love of his life was our grandson, Jackson. He became a kid again with Jack and it was so wonderful to see. How sad it is that he will never see his newest grandchild due in October.

I know a piece of Larry’s heart always stayed in Alexandria. He brought me there a few times to visit his old haunts; I vaguely remember a pool hall and a bar. I think it is really great the way you try to remember old classmates. I wish my high school had something like this.
Thank you,
Mary Anne Sass

________________________________________

Comments:

Bev Korkowski writes: Nice story on Larry! How interesting that he had such strong feelings about Alexandria and really never seemed to get over them. All the more reason I'm glad you got the scholarship fund off the ground. Any update on the total? I'd be more than happy to bump up my pledge; we won't let this remembrance be unfinished. Just let me know. Bev

Diane Hoffman O'Brien writes: . . . beautiful tribute to Larry...