LEWIS VERLAINE LARSEN

Verlaine Larsen

MONTPELIER – Lewis Verlaine Larsen, 79, passed away Tuesday, Sept 20, 2005, and [sic] the Bear Lake Skilled Nursing Facility in Montpelier, Idaho, due to Alzheimer’s disease.

He was born July 22, 1926, in Georgetown, Idaho, to Lewis Peter and Ruby Bacon Larsen. When he was 4 and his brother was 2, their mother became very ill. They were then cared for by their father and grandmother, Tressa Bacon. Their father later married LaReva Smith Wilcox. Verlaine attended school in Georgetown, where he graduated in 1944.

He went to Utah State for a brief two months, but he was then drafted into the Army in the late fall of 1944. In 1945, he was medically discharged and released from duty. In October 1946, he was called to serve and departed to the Northwestern States Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1949, he returned to Utah State and graduated with a B.S. degree in 1951. In September 1953 he began his teaching career in Malad, and later finished in Bear Lake School District.

On June 2, 1954, he married Ila Bell Hughes in the Logan, Utah LDS Temple. He worked different jobs starting with three years in the Signal Department as a lineman for Union Pacific Railroad, school teacher for 22 years, and as a preventive maintenance custodian for the LDS Church for nearly 14 years.

He was a lovely trumpet player through his years of school. He was loved and will be remembered by his family.

Verlaine is survived by his wife, Ila Bell, of Montpelier; a brother, Lowell Allen (Maureen) Larsen; a stepbrother, Elmer (Faye) Wilcox; a stepsister-in-law, Nedra Wilcox; his daughter, Karen (Brian) Hayes; two sons, Lynn V. (Pamela Ahern) Larsen, Paul H. (Shirlene Bird) Larsen; 13 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents, his step-mother and a stepbrother, Larry Wilcox and other relatives on the other side.

Funeral services will be Saturday, Sept. 24, at noon in the Montpelier First Ward Chapel, where friends may call that morning from 10:30 until 11:45 a.m. Burial will be in the Georgetown Cemetery, with services under the direction of Matthews Mortuary of Montpelier.