Larry Dean Hall
August 24, 1938 - July 16, 2009
Larry
Dean Hall, 70, passed away July 16, 2009. Family will receive friends
from 5-8 p.m., Sunday July 19 and a funeral service will be held at 2:00
p.m., Monday July 20, both at Memphis Funeral Home, Germantown Parkway
Chapel. Burial will follow in Memory Hill Gardens. Larry was a member of
Germantown Presbyterian Church. He is survived by his wife of 43 years,
Willard; daughter, Joanna (Patrick) Black; son, Darryl (Hellen) Gardner;
grandchildren, Christopher, Stephen, Jacqueline, & Jeffry Wade
Gardner, and Candice Black; and honorary grandchildren, Ben, Savanah,
& Katelyn Woods. Memphis Funeral Home Germantown Parkway Chapel
(901)725-0100 www.memphisfuneralhome.netLarry was right up there with Linda Methvin Smith, Buck Locke, and Jim Kimbrell as my biggest supporters of the shsclassof1956 website project. I cannot tell you the number of encouraging notes I received from Larry about how much the memories evoked by browsing through the pages of this location on the world wide web meant to him. The last thing we were working on was a page about Whippoorwill Hollow, a place below the bluff on which the city of Sheffield sat, but which I, myself, had never visited. Larry shared with me lots of his memories of his Mom walking them down the path from the park at the corner of West 10th and Montgomery Avenue through the woodsy, garden-like approach to the swimming hole. When I told him of my visit to the jumping off point on Memorial Day 2009 to take photographs, he wanted to know if the path was still there, but he added, wistfully, "I don't think I could do the hike today."
Larry had significant health issues, but not a single communication from him exuded anything but cheery nostalgia and seriously patriotic and moral musings. He was optimistic for John Collins, who was hospitalized recently for some of the same patchwork that Larry had endured. He was looking forward to our upcoming Reunion53. He loved his hometown of Collierville and was the first of those who responded to my call for slideshows of your adopted hometowns to post on the website.
Larry won one of my contests for something (maybe it was for being first to send me the hometown photos), and his prize, a $25 lunch or dinner at The Southland Restaurant, is still tacked to the bulletin board at the cash register. Prophetically, he told me he probably wouldn't be using it and suggested passing it on to another classmate.
I will miss him. It's funny how some of my closest friends from our class now were not among the ones I ran around with back then. I know his family are grieving. Keep all of them (and us who knew and loved him) in your prayers.
Louis Buettner
July 25, 2009
Larry has been our special link to family and community activities. He has prepared several CDs and DVDs, set to music no less, of various town, church, school and family activities. We have watched our grand children grow primarily through the efforts of Larry since it is difficult to visit as often as we would like.
We are proud to have had Larry as a special friend and shall remember him as such. He was a calming influence in our troubled world.
Our sincere sympathies to Willard and family.
Frank and Peggy Bishop
___________________________________________________
We just found out about Larry's passing from Aunt Lib, sorry we were not able to be there with you for the service. Please accept our deepest sympathy. Although we haven't been extremely close as family Larry had a special place in our hearts and was always there to offer what ever was needed. After our Dad (his uncle, James E. Hall) passed away it seems we lost touch with a lot of the Hall family. Please keep in touch with us
Ann Johnson, Tammy Coan and Harold Hall
Peter and I are saddened by the loss of Larry who will be especially missed by Carol, Steve, Ben, Savannah, and Kaitlyn. Larry and Willard were "adopted" by all of us as grandparents to the kids. Larry loved us all and took good care of us.
Larry would come to the airport to take us to the Woods home for a visit. He always had glowing reports of the kids' progress, and helped me shop and fetch for the family. I loved his optimism and friendship. We will all miss Larry greatly, and know he is in heaven with many angels singing his praises.
With much love to all,
Lois Pauley Piper and Peter (Donald) Piper
___________________________________________________
Dearest Willard,Ben,Savanah and Kaitlyn,
I want you to know that I hold you close to my heart and in my prayers
during this time of sorrow. We were so blest to have Larry in our
lives.
I have grown to know and love him through teaching him guitar lessons.
We would laugh so hard during our lessons while working to
"master" a passage in a song. But as is often the
case, this student taught the teacher. I learned through witnessing
Larry's life what it means to be truly Christlike. Larry was
always serving the needs of others. If you needed something, you
didn't even need to ask. I thank God that I was so blessed to
have known him and I will miss him so much.
My sweetest memory is one of our last lessons...we had to move outside
at St. George's because the santuary was being used for play practice.
As God would have it, the cool breeze was blowing and we couldn't keep
the pages of the music on the stand. We laughed and laughed and Larry
said, "It's alright, I don't really read the music anyway."
He always found the sunshine on a cloudy day.
God speed Larry. I just know you are playing a dobro up there in
heaven with the choir of angels.
Love, Karen Schowalter Cooper
___________________________________________________
Please accept my sincere and deepest sympathy. In thinking back over our school years, I know we were classmates from 4th Grade. I remember him as a good guy and always smiling. We will miss him at our class reunions.
My thoughts and prayers are with each of you during this difficult time.
Linda Methvin Smith
Florence, AL
Larry grew up four blocks from me. He was one of my earliest friends and I miss him deeply. I am sure that all of you do to. He was a good kid and grew to be a good man. I am proud to have known him and sad to lose him.
May God be with you and yours at this time of sadness.
___________________________________________________
At first, Larry was pretty sure that he didn't trust us once he realized that we were salaried / nonunion Republicans ... and Yankees to boot! But he quickly came to overlook our flaws and treat us like close family.
You can't put enough information into the obituary to truly tell about the person. If we could, we would have wanted to remind the world how Larry loved to fish, to share coffee with his friends in the morning, and share a smile and story with ANYone, ANYtime.
He was enjoying life every day ... mastering his computer and digital photography, and even learning how to play the guitar (he was most recently practicing "Scarborough Fair").
I think it's fitting that Larry's obituary was in a newspaper that also announced the passing of Walter Cronkite, known as "The Most Trusted Man in America". In our home, that title would go to Larry ... he was the most dependable, trustworthy, caring person that we knew.
We all loved him and will miss him greatly, but we know that we're not the only ones. Our thoughts go to his family both near & far, and all the friends that were blessed to have known him through the years.
You'll never be forgotten, Larry. You'll live on with fond memories in our hearts forever.
___________________________________________________
July 18, 2009
We have many fond memories of a lot of good times together. Our deepest sympathy to you and the family.
My heart goes out to you, Please accept my deepest sympathies. Larry was my Classmate at Sheffield High School and we shared many e-mails over the last years. He will be missed and remembered by his many friends and classmates.