Lawrence "Larry" Cleo Firkins, 1915-2006

FIRKINS, SLATER

Posted By: Sharon K Hesebeck (email)
Date: 4/16/2013 at 11:19:24

Lawrence "Larry" Cleo Firkins
Born: November 3, 1915
Died: October 1, 2006
Age: 90

SERVICES
Funeral Services will be held 10:30 A.M., Thursday, October 5, 2006 at the First Congregational Church in Spencer

OFFICIATING
Rev. Tom Van Tassell

CASKET BEARERS
Oliver Vogt - Donald Veitch, Bruce Kardell - Paul Shearer, Mark Pullen - Rick Peterson, Paul Maurer

INTERMENT
Riverside Cemetery
Spencer, Iowa

Military Services will be conducted by Glen Pedersen Post #1 - American Legion of Spencer, Iowa following the graveside services.

Larry Firkins had a very full day.

His life dawned on Nov. 3, 1915, on a farm near Rolfe, Iowa. Born Lawrence Cleo Firkins to father Artie and mother Anna, Larry was the fourth of five children. Like other boys raised in the lean and rugged world of early 20th Century family farming, Larry learned quickly the meaning of honest work -- plowing with a two-horse team, shocking oats, pitching hay with a five-tined fork. The values of hard work and personal discipline gained in boyhood would serve him well the rest of his life. Even the little free time he had to be a boy was spent working the fields with his dog Ring to put pheasants and rabbits on the family table. The love for hunting he found as a boy endured all his days. Being in the hunt would come to symbolize his attitude toward life. Life for Larry was not a spectator sport, but an arena for doing until a heart beats no more.

In 1927 the Firkins family moved from Rodman, where Larry attended elementary school, to a farm near Plover, where he attended middle and high school. He expressed an early interest in music by studying the violin and singing tenor in the choir. But his real loves were basketball and baseball. His prowess as a 6' 2" center, in an era when every basket was followed by a center-court jump, earned him the title of All State Center in 1933, and then a scholarship to the University of Iowa. His picture still hangs with his teammates in the halls of the athletic department there.

Larrys decision to leave college for a job in Emmetsburg would bring him together with Lois Helen Slater, at the time a drama major at Emmetsburg Community College, and soon to be the love of his life. On Sept. 1, 1941, Larry and Lois were married in Scotland, South Dakota, but were immediately faced with an untimely separation caused by World War II. After basic training, Larry shipped out to Iceland and England in 1942, where he served in the Army Signal Corps until wars end in 1945. To his wifes chagrin, the hours spent tapping morse code in the Service became a habit that died hard at the dinner table.

Larry began his career as a livestock broker with Pullen Livestock. Eventually he bought the business and worked as an independent buyer for 18 years. During that time he entered into a silent partnership with Spencer Truck Line and finally bought that business as well. Larry was respected throughout his territory as a fair and honest businessman. But little did his clients know that his business was simply an extension of a deeper passion for people. He cherished relationships. Until the day he died, he loved driving the gravel roads of his territory and sharing with his family fond remembrances of his customers.

Larry was a modest man, but he had much to be proud of. He was civically active his entire adulthood. He served as a Spencer City Councilman for two terms, 1968-1970 and 1972-1974, and also served on the Board of Directors of the Spencer Golf and Country Club from 1983 to 1990. Larrys participation in the Fraternal Order of Free Masons began in 1954 and spanned his entire adult life. He was a brother of Evening Shade Lodge #312 of Spencer, and was Master of the Lodge in 1963. Larry was honored as a 50-year member of the Masons as of March 1, 2004, and was a 50-year active member of the York Rite of Spencer.

But the real measures of Larrys character were his dedication to and sacrifices for his family. After Lois was disabled by a stroke in 1974, he provided diligent, nonstop care to her for over thirty years, until she finally succumbed to leukemia in 2005. His patience, steadfastness and ingenuity during this time were nothing short of heroic.

Larry spent Saturday, Sept. 30, 2006, with his family -- son Terry and daughter-in-law Wendy. There was work to be done before winter, trimming the hedge, pruning trees and bushes, waterproofing the chimney. They had a late afternoon picnic on a hill overlooking Lost Island Lake, drove through the countryside to survey the first day of goose season and the dust clouds engulfing combines harvesting beans that glowed Venetian red in the sunset. It was a vivid, perfectly still evening. That night, Larry went to bed and in the early morning hours passed away peacefully. He had a very full day.

Larry is preceded in death by his wife Lois, brothers Emil and Maynard, and sister Leona. He is survived by his son Terry, daughter Wendy, sister Marvel, companion Hermina, and the spirits of many other friends and family, living and departed.

Warner Funeral Home of Spencer, IA

Interment in Riverside cemetery
 

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