Larry Petersen

Larry Jay Petersen Born May 25, 1935, to Leon Lars Petersen and Elpha Potter Petersen Larry was the only son amongst three daughters, Verla, Linda, and Sharol. Died, January 14, 2015, age 79 Services to held on Monday, January 19, 2015 at 11am at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints located at 12995 W. 72nd Avenue, Arvada, Colorado . Viewing on Sunday at 6 to 8 pm Located at: Horan & McConaty Mortuary 7577 W. 80th Ave. Arvada, CO 80003 Burial will be in the City of Golden Cemetery Larry leaves behind his wife, Carol, six children, 24 Grandchildren, and 11 Great Grandchildren. He was also a father to several foster children. He also is survived by two sisters, Verla Elwood, and Linda Coates. In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting donations to the Boy Scouts of America, Denver Area Council 10455 West 6th ave. Suite 100 Denver, CO 80215 or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Missionary Fund at: ldsphilanthropies.org Larry grew up on a dairy farm. He spent many hours working the farm with his father. He had rheumatic fever twice in his younger years, and during his recovery period he learned to cross stitch beautifully. In high school he developed a talent for leatherwork, making beautiful photo albums and other items. He earned the rank of Life Scout and would have continued on to Eagle but rheumatic fever stopped his progress. Larry, and his cousins Boyd and Drex spent many hours together, and cars were their life. Some memories from Boyd include: The time that Boyd and Larry tried to teach baby ducks to swim. There was a large watering trough at the bottom of the hill on the farm in Lewiston. One day Larry and Boyd were down there playing and just wandering around with nothing going on when we discovered a group of baby ducks close by. We decided we needed to teach these ducks how to swim. After making them swim across the watering trough a few times they were not feeling to well. One day Larry and Boyd were out in the field with Dad burning weeds and Larry pointed the pitchfork like a gun at Dad and said bang! Well, Dad fell down and pretended he was dead we stood there and wondered what we should do. Larry walked over to Dad and poked him with the handle of the pitch fork! Dad let out a loud yell and jumped up Larry didn't let any grass grow under his feet. He ran so fast he made a dust cloud. Another experience from Boyd: Larry and his mom were visiting at our house. Mom and Larry's mom decided to go to the store that was about 2 miles away. They got in the car and left. They did not tell Larry what was going on. Larry got upset and started chasing them. He actually got them to stop about a half mile down the road. Larry and his family lived about 6 miles from our farm in Lewiston. Larry and I were about 10 years old and we would take turns on weekends riding our bikes to one anothers place and just riding around Lewiston. He decided to follow the Cub River through the pasture land for about 2 miles to Casper ice cream. We were a couple of tired boys when we got to our destination. Growing up he always had a pet dog, and when he left on the mission, the dog sat on the front porch for about a week crying for him and then one day the dog just disappeared and was never seen again. Several of us sat together and were relating our memories of him and they represent the Dad, Husband, and Man he was. He served his first mission as a young Elder in the Western States Mission, living some of the time in our mother's basement. He discovered that he had fallen in love with her, and came to the front door and told her he loved her, and would she marry him when he had completed his mission. And then of course, he was transferred far away from his sweetheart. As soon as his mission was complete, he went and got Carol and they were married in the Logan Temple 57 years ago. His second mission was in the Denver North Mission with his wife. He was in charge of all the mission cars. He also served 5 Stake Missions in the Denver West, Cheyenne, Wyoming and Arvada Colorado Stakes. Larry was always a constant and faithful missionary, talking about the gospel every chance he got to whoever would listen. His testimony of the Restoration of the Gospel, the Atonement, and the Ordinances of the temple was firm and sure. He shared it willingly with his family, his friends, and his business associates. One experience was related by Charles Pennington, a neighbor in Greeley. He told his wife ""I don't want nothing to do with your church...no missionaries!"" When Larry and Carol moved in, Larry asked Charles to give him three reasons why he didn't want to be a member. Then he said, ""Well, come to church with me."" Charles went to church, asked about being baptized, and has been a active member for 42 years, and worked in the maintenance group with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was also known as one who would be ready at a moments notice to go and give a blessing, even in the middle of the night, never complaining. The ability to exercise the Priesthood on behalf of the Savior was a top priority in his life. He served in multiple callings in the church, scouting as the Webelos Leader, Sunday School President, and One of the Seven Presidents of Seventy, Ward Mission Leader. He worked in the plumbing field, but was loaned to an electrician one day, and that's where he found his life's work. He became a Master Electrician by studying the books at night with his wife, and gaining work experience during the day. He was the owner of L & R Electric, Inc. until his retirement. He also worked as a custodian for the LDS Church in the Arvada Colorado Stake. He used to take his kids to work with him on weekends where he taught them all to plug and switch while he was building 200 units apartment complexes. One day his kids saw him stick his screw driver where it didn't belong and watched in amazement him taking a flying lesson across the room. He lined the kids up and swore them to secrecy to not tell their mother. You guessed it, the kids went right home and said ""Mom, guess what? Dad went flying across the room today!"" Another day, Carol answered the phone and he told her that he had shot himself! When Carol could breathe again, he told her that it was with a nail gun, and he was taking himself to the emergency room. He was going to be late for dinner. There were several phrases he used often: One particularly funny one was when the family was sitting in Little America eating ice cream and Dad said ""I'm going to go drain my radiator."" Little LuAnn asked: Is that going to take long Daddy? Turns out it didn't take long, he just needed to use the restroom! He would also say, ""I'm so hungry that my big one is chewing on my little one!"" ""I'm going to kick you so hard that you are going to starve to death before you bounce!"" ""I'm going to get rid of that ""DAMN"" Dog! Mostly he didn't get rid of the dog, but if he did it wasn't long before another dog showed up. Dad always enjoyed spending time with his family, and he would load us up and go on road trips. We went to Grandma's house most every fourth of July, and after camping in tents in the front yard, cooking breakfast on camp stoves for the entire extended family, and watching the parade the family water fight began! EVERYONE was aiming for Larry! All kinds of water guns, buckets, hoses were employed in the game. Even his mom and dad would get in on the action. Grandma spraying everyone from the kitchen window and Grandpa spraying from the front porch with a little water gun always reminding everyone NOT to get Grandma wet! Always on family road trips, there were the 4-5, 8 track tapes he played over and over and over again. We all learned all the words to every single song on every single tape! A White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation by Marty Robbins was his favorite. He would sing it at the top of his lungs, and the family would all join in. Now, even the grandchildren know all the words because his kids still love that song. One family trip to Grandma's house he brought the snowmobiles, and convinced his mother to go for a ride. She got her helmet on, and got on the back of his snowmobile. She was very vocal in what she would do to him if he crashed, or let her fall off the snowmobile. Well, he didn't listen to well, because he took off down into the irrigation ditch and almost lost his mother. Arms were flailing, cuss words were heard, but somehow he managed to drive the snowmobile and hang on to his mother! Larry had many interests and talents that kept him busy. He loved tinkering in his garage, building things in his workshop like dolly cradles, children's rocking chairs, and cedar chests for his daughters. He could really sing and dance. He loved to call you on your birthday and sing terribly off-key opera style ""Happy Birthday To You"". He always made up his own words to the song. It was a tradition to take the grandchildren to Dairy Queen for ice cream and to feed the ducks. He loved John Deere tractors, and riding motorcycles, and only loved Chevy trucks! He collected guns and made his own bullets. He always told people not to take wooden nickels and then hand them out to people. He had a little yellow S-10 pickup that he used in his business. It had a CB radio in it so he could talk to Carol during the day. His call sign was ""Flying Banana""! He used that little truck to teach all of his kids how to drive a stick shift in the neighbors llama field. The llamas just moved over when they saw the little truck pull in. In his later years, he learned how to drive a semi-truck and when he came home from a run, Carol wouldn't kiss him until he had showered. He quit… driving the truck that is! He especially loved his mother's raisin pie at Thanksgiving, and Indian fried bread made by his Issy any time he could convince her to make it. His Granddaughters all love to rub his hair because it was so soft. They said they had to pet Papa! One of his last wishes was to be driven to the cemetery in the back of his big white truck! We are so privileged to have had Larry as a Husband, Son, Uncle, Dad. We know that he is with his parents and his Heavenly Father, and because of the plan of salvation we can be the forever family Dad always dreamed of having around him. We are truly grateful for our knowledge that we will see him again. He is busy probably doing more missionary work on the other side. Please share your memories of Larry and condolences with his family by signing the guestbook below.